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The  Last  Days 


OF  THE 


Ruskin  Co=operiitive 
Association 


Bv  Prokf.ssor  Isaac  Broome. 
(Written  at  Ruskin,  Tenn.) 


CHICAGO 

CHARLES  H.  KERR  &  COMF^ANY 

■  902 


Copyrifjht  1902 
liY  Charles  H.  Kerr  tV  Uompant 


^  9.  .hi 


SANiA  xlAilUAliA  COLLEGE  LIBR> 


LIBRARY 


rUBLlSHEirS  PREFACE. 


A  few  words  of  explanation  may  not  be  out  of 
place  in  connection  with  the  publication  of  this 
volume  in  the  Standard  Socialist  Series. 

Some  may  object  to  classifying  it  as  a  socialist 
book  on  the  ground  that  it  portrays  only  errors 
in  an  attempted  practical  application  of  the  prin- 
ci])le.  (  )thers,  with  more  reason,  will  object  to  the 
way  in  which  the  word  socialist  is  used  in  the  fol- 
lowing pages. 

The  millions  upon  millions  of  workers  in  Eu- 
rc^pe  and  America  who  rally  under  the  socialist 
banner  have  a  better  right  than  any  obsolete  lexi- 
cographer to  define  the  word  socialist  to-day. 
They  define  the  word,  not  as  one  with  yearnings 
for  an  ideal  social  order  and  schemes  for  manu- 
facturing it,  though  this  seems  to  be  the  sense  in 
which  all  the  Ruskin  colonists,  including  the  au- 
thor of  this  book,  used  the  word.  The  Socialists 
of  the  world  prefer  to  define  it  as  one  who,  see- 
ing that  the  masses  of  men  are  moved  mainly  by 
their  material  interests,  and  that  the  laborers  are 
oppressed  by  the  fruits  of  their  labor  being  taken 
from  them  by   the  owners  of  ca{)ilal,  therefore 


struggles  for  the  establishment  of  a  collective 
system  of  production,  through  the  united  politi- 
cal action  of  the  working  class. 

The  socialist,  using  the  word  as  just  defined, 
will  find  few  of  his  own  ideas  in  the  remarks  with 
which  our  author  has  interspersed  his  story,  but 
by  way  of  compensation  he  will  find  a  mass  of 
valuable  testimony  from  an  eye-witness  as  to  the 
practical  working  of  a  scheme  which  sought  to 
build  a  new  social  order  without  regard  to  the 
essential  facts  familiar  to  all  socialists. 

Professor  Broome  may  be  quite  correct  in  hold- 
ing that  the  colonists  in  devising  a  plan  for  self- 
government,  devised  a  poor  one.  This,  however, 
matters  little.  The  Ruskin  colony  was  an  at- 
tempt on  the  part  of  a  group  of  people  to  escape 
from  capitalism  and  establish  co-operation. 

America,  like  every  other  civilized  country, 
had  inevitably  to  pass  through  that  economic 
stage  which  was  accompanied  by  Utopian  dream- 
ing and  attempts  at  realizing  the  dreams  by 
means  of  miniature  experiments.  Ruskin  happens 
to  be  the  most  conspicuous  of  these  experiments, 
and  it  is  for  that  reason  that  even  minute  inci- 
dents attending  its  rise  and  fall  afford  valuable 
material  for  the  social  student. 

The  whole  story  resolves  itself  into  a  striking 
example  of  the  workings  of  that  law  of  economic 


determinism  which  is  the  basis  of  international 
sociaHsm  ami  which  the  self-styled  socialists  of 
Kuskin  never  dreamed  of  in  their  philosophy. 

As  a  socialist  publishing  company  we  take  no 
interest  in  the  personal  antagonisms  engendered 
by  the  miserable  state  of  things  at  Ruskin.  The 
author's  estimates  of  the  personal  traits  of  his 
associates  may  be  just  or  not.  At  our  request  he 
has  omitted  names,  and  while  some  of  the  char- 
acters may  be  easil}-  recognizable  by  those  al- 
ready familiar  with  the  facts,  we  do  not  think 
any  one  can  be  injured. 

The  author,  with  all  intent  to  be  impartial, 
could  not  possibly  write  without  partisanship 
about  a  strife  in  which  he  was  engaged,  and  such 
jiartisanshiij  cannot  be  avoided  if  we  are  to  get 
an  account  of  the  colony  by  an  eye-witness.  It  is 
indeed  conceivable  that  the  "charter  element" 
may  have  been  more  entitled  to  the  sympathy  of 
the  reader  than  the  author  and  his  supporters,  but 
this  if  true  could  not  affect  the  value  of  the  book 
as  an  object  lesson  and  a  warning. 

In  conclusion,  it  only  remains  to  be  said  that 
we  believe  the  author  of  this  work  to  be,  by  all 
odds,  the  most  competent  historian  of  the  Ruskin 
Commonwealth  who  could  possibly  be  found.  In- 
tellectually he  stands  in  a  class  apart  from  the 
mass  of  the  colonists,  and  his  own  personality, 

5 


whicli  he  has  infused  into  the  story,  will  make  it 
acceptable  reading  even  to  those  who  approach 
the  subject  without  previous  interest. 

We  believe  that  the  book  will  thus  find  many 
readers  and  that  it  will  tend  to  dissuade  them 
from  wasting  any  energy  in  future  on  miniature 
Utopias.  This  result  is  greatly  to  be  desired, 
since  the  one  important  task  of  the  present  day  is 
the  building  up  of  an  International  movement  of 
workers,  through  which  alone  a  better  social  or- 
der can  be  established.  c.  ii.  k. 


CONTENTS. 

Cliaptcj-.  rage. 

lntn>iliK'tioii  to  Riiskin  Colony 'J 

1.     I'iiKuicial  Methods  !-• 

II.    Management  '"^^ 

III.  Our  I'atriarchs 50 

IV.  The  Lyblan  Civilization OS 

V.    The  Cuisine 'i''^ 

VI.  Education «'J 

Vri.  AnaiTliy  and  Free  Love .lOo 

VIII.  Injunction 1<50 

IX.  The  Wrceli   l^S 

X.  The  Last  Gasp 15- 

XI.  Babylon  Is  Fallen !(« 


ILLUSTRATIONS. 


General  View  of  Temporary  Site— 1898,  facing  title  page. 

The  Printery  and  Steam  Laundry,  facing  page 1^ 

Laying  the  Corner  Stone  of  Uuskiu  College  of  New  Kcou- 

omy,  facing  page -1 

Month  of  the  Grand  Cave  in  Winter,  facing  page l-'8 

Tlie  (Jarden.  facing  page 50 

Design  of  Uuskiu  College  of  Now  Economy,  Isaac  Hroome, 

Architect,  facing  page 00 

A  Wedding  on  the  Stage  at  Ruskin,  facing  page 01 

The  Grist  Mill  at  Mouth  of  Cave,  facing  page Ti! 

Ruskin  Cuisine,  facing  page 84 

Tlie  Grist  Mill  and  School  Children,  facing  page W 

Entrance  to  Ruskin,  facing  page 100 

Ruskin  I'ants,  facing  page 131! 

Canning  in  the  Grand  Cave,  facing  page 150 

Ruskin  Band,  1897,  facing  page lOK 

The  Flower  Garden,  1S9S,  facing  page 174 

Bust  of  John  Ruskin,  faclug  page 170 


INTRODUCTION  TO  RU8K1N  COLONY, 


A  two  days'  ride  on  the  railroad  and  at  last  we 
were  ncaring  the  region  where  the  already  fa- 
mous Ruskin  Colony  was  located,  west  of  Nash- 
ville, Tennessee.  The  unkempt  and  improvident 
appearance  of  the  country  through  which  we  had 
passed  south  of  the  Ohio  river  was  becoming 
discouragingly  intensified  —  poorly  cared-for, 
fenceless  farms,  with  wretched  buildings  and  a 
remarkable  absence  of  the  comforts  which  dis- 
tinguish the  rural  districts  of  the  North. 

"Tennessee  City,"  called  the  conductor,  and  we 
left  the  train.  A  barren  looking  spot,  with  a  few 
houses  at  a  distance  answered  for  the  so-called 
city.  Later  we  learned  that  this  pompous  title 
was  given  by  a  syndicate  of  land  speculators  who 
had  in  imagination  a  future  urban  district  with 
the  splendors  of  a  Paris  or  Vienna. 

"Where  is  the  Ruskin  Colony?"  was  asked  of  a 
placid-looking  negro,  who  was  idling  about  the 
station.  "You  can  fine  out  ober  dar,"  pointing 
to  a  long  frame  Iwrrack  of  a  building  at  some 
distance,  on  which  was  painted,  "Coming  Na- 
tion." It  was  the  printery,  where  v/e  received 
hearty  welcome.  In  a  few  hours  "The  v/agon's 
ready,"  v/as  called,  and  a  two  miles'  ride  through 
a  primeval  oak  forest  brought  us  to  famous  Rus- 


IC  LAST     DAYS     OF     RUSKIN 

kin.  The  first  sight  of  the  thirty-two  scattered 
shack  houses  along  the  gulley  and  over  steep  hills 
deepened  the  unfavorable  impression  received 
along  the  railroad.  On  a  side  hill  was  located 
the  two-story  hotel,  thirty  by  seventy  feet,  con- 
taining twelve  sleeping  rooms,  and  the  general 
dining-room  and  kitchen.  It  was  just  supper 
time  as  we  entered  the  noisy  dining  hall  and  took 
our  first  meal  in  a  socialist  colony  in  March, 
1896. 

It  required  but  a  glance  to  see  that  the  colony 
was  composed  mostly  of  people  who  had  never 
had  any  advantages  and  were  contented  with 
primitive  surroundings.  The  conventionalities 
of  society  were  abandoned  and  but  little  disposi- 
tion was  shown  towards  maintaining  the  pro- 
prieties of  cultured  life.  The  salute  of  a  "good 
morning"  seemed  a  surprise.  There  was  no  pol- 
ishing up  on  Sunday.  The  men  sat  arouufl  on 
logs,  stones,  or  in  the  dirt  smoking  and  spitting 
tobacco.  Pigs  roamed  the  streets  when  not  in 
convention  around  the  swill  barrels  in  the  rear 
of  the  kitchen.  The  place  and  the  people  were 
far  from  the  ideal  and  presented  a  poor  prospect 
for  the  development  of  a  high  social  state. 

The  unfertile  soil  of  the  one  thousand  acres  on 
which  Ruskin  stood  had  a  substratum  of  hard- 
pan  through  which  the  oaks  sent  no  tap  root. 
Wells  dug  with  great  labor  showed  that  it  ex- 
tended to  considerable  depth.  In  fact,  it  was 
really  the  mysterious  gravel  drift  which  puzzles 
geologists  and  has  called  out  of  late  years  such 
interesting  literature  about  the  fall  of  the  planet 


INTRUlJb'CTlON  II 

Lucifer,  the  parent  of  the  asteroids,  which,  it  is 
said,  struck  the  earth  in  North  America,  sweep- 
ins^  its  gravel  over  the  continent  to  Patagonia 
and  over  Africa  to  Cape  Colony,  causing  convul- 
sions and  sinking  Atlantis.  The  site  of  Ruskin 
had  had  a  double  dose,  well  pounded  dovvu,  for  it 
was  harder  than  rock  clay,  impenetrable  to  mois- 
ture, holding  water  as  well  as  a  tin  1)ucket. 

This  unpromising  soil,  after  twenty  months' 
act|uaintance,  had  discouraged  the  colonists  who 
had  been  looking  far  and  wide  for  a  new  site, 
finally  deciding  on  one  six  miles  north  called 
"Cave  Mills,"  afterwards  "New  Ruskin." 

The  colony  idea  had  first  originated  in  the 
brain  of  Wayland  in  1893,  shortly  after  he  had 
started  the  "Coming  Nation"  newspaper  at 
Greensburg,  Indiana.  It  was  to  be  a  co-opera- 
tive village,  backed  up  by  the  industry  of  the 
newspaper,  which  was  rapidly  growing  in  circu- 
lation through  the  interests  and  efforts  of  social- 
ists, and  when  Wayland  located  the  Tennessee 
site  it  had  reached  a  circulation  of  60,000. 

During  the  previous  twenty  months  much  had 
developed  in  the  character  of  the  colonists  of  a 
fricdonal  nature  which  had  caused  the  founder, 
Wayland,  to  abandon  the  enterprise,  newspaper 
and  all,  accepting  $2,000  for  four  shares  of  stock, 
leaving  the  plant,  lands  and  properties  in  the 
hands  of  the  colonists  Vvho  had  come  in  up  to  the 
fall  of  1895.  Of  course  a  number  of  the  colonists 
also  left  as  soon  as  they  coukl  get  away,  and  for 
a  few  months  the  strife  considerably  sul)sided  to 
redevelop  later  on  under  l)a(l  business  manage- 


) 


12  LAST     DAYS     OF     RUSKIN 

ment  au'l  other  causes  which  the  reader  will  see 
in  the  account  given  of  the  "Last  Days  of  the 
Ruskin  Co-operative  z-Yssociation,"  and  the  con- 
ditions leading  up  to  the  crash  of  its  dissolution. 

In  about  a  month  after  our  arrival  moving  be- 
gan to  the  new  site,  the  saw  mill  being  the  first, 
in  order  to  cut  lumber  for  the  nevv'  printery  build- 
ing, which  was  erected  by  July  on  a  larger  scale, 
three  stories  high,  the  upper  floor  serving  for 
dining-hall,  ball-room,  lyceum  and  theater.  The 
rough  board  houses  were  torn  down  and  re- 
erected  at  New  Ruskin,  and  by  Christmas  all  the 
people  were  transferred  to  the  new  site,  winch 
proved  to  be  one  of  the  most  attractive  and  in- 
teresting places  imaginable. 

Old  Ruskin,  its  hotel,  machine  shop  and  farm 
buildings  stood  silent  and  alone  on  the  barren 
ridge.  Three  miles  from  this  forlorn  spot  on 
which  a  group  of  inexperienced  people  were  to 
set  .the  model  for  the  regeneration  of  the  world, 
the  view  suddenly  opened  upon  a  lovely  scene 
rich  in  verdure,  the  very  antithesis  of  the  deso- 
late place  we  left.  The  wild  grape  luxuriantly 
festooned  the  giant  trees  an-d  everywhere  the  eye 
turned  over  the  charming  perspectives  of  this 
ai)undantly  watered  valley  endless  varieties  of 
fruit  and  flower  rose  thickly  from  the  generous 
soil. 

We  cross  the  ford  of  Yellow  Creek  and  the 
mammoth  building  of  the  new  printery  stands 
l)efore  us  against  a  picturesque  background  of 
perpendicular  limestone  blufif.  Rare  mosses  and 
wilrl  plants  gave  the    chromatic    harmonies    of 


THE    PRINTERY    AND    STEAM    LAUNDRY 


iNTRODUCTiON 


color  aiul  a  delicate  wilderness  of  form  to  its  sur- 
face as  they  crept  in  patches,  or  rooted  in  the 
crevices  of  the  rock  at  inaccessible  heights.  As- 
cending thirty  or  forty  feet  of  the  debris  which 
has  fallen  during  ages  at  the  base  of  the  clifif,  we 
find  ourselves  in  front  of  a  gigantic  cave,  the 
smooth  elliptical  roof  of  which  vanishes  away  to 
an  interminable  distance  over  a  vast  chamber 
and  lake  of  purest  water  of  great  depth. 

A  Hume  directs  a  bubbling,  crystal  stream 
from  its  natural  escape  beneath  the  rocks  to  a 
water  wheel  near  the  entrance  which  forces  it 
to  a  reservoir  on  the  top  of  the  cliff.  Explorers 
for  miles  through  the  chain  of  caverns,  of  which 
this  is  the  outlet,  report  vast  chambers  without 
end.  This  delightful  retreat  which  has  succeeded 
in  its  uses  the  home  of  the  cave  bear  and  the 
manmioth,  the  den  of  the  savage  and  the  conven- 
tion for  festivity  of  civilized  man,  now  furnishes 
cool  storage  to  a  Socialist  colony.  We  pass  out 
from  the  impressiveness  of  this  giant  rock  archi- 
tecture to  bright  and  l^eautiful  nature  so  rich  in 
foliage  along  the  hills,  the  air  redolent  with  odors 
and  musical  with  birds.  Changing  scenes  of  pic- 
turesque beauty  along  the  banks  of  Yellow^  creek 
embellished  by  its  sparkling  waters  form  a 
pleasant  panorama  on  our  route  over  the  colony 
lands  to  another  large  cave  at  the  end  of  tlie 
chain  of  hills.  Here  we  witness  one  of  the 
world's  wonders  in  its  profusion  of  hanging  sta- 
lactites and  colonnades  that  presents  the  idea  of  a 
fairy  palace.  Beyond  this  the  new  home  of  the 
Ruskin  colonists  stretches  in  an  irregular  manner 


14  LAST     DAYS     OF     RUSKIN 

lor  over  a  mile  to  the  north  and  about  the  same 
distance  up  the  valley  along-  Silver  creek. 

Commanding  a  fine  view  down  the  rich  valley, 
with  prosperous  farms,  from  a  hill  to  the  right, 
was  located  the  site  of  Ruskin's  hope,  "The  Col- 
lege of  the  New  Economy."  The  extensive  gar- 
dens, the  cliff  of  the  "Grand  Cave"  and  the  print- 
cry  \\ere  all  in  view  looking  southward,  the  val- 
ley narrowing  as  it  stretched  away  in  the  dis- 
tance. Adjoining  the  college  site  was  platted  the 
])ermanent  town,  the  location  on  the  gravel  beds 
near  the  printery,  where  the  shacks  were  erected 
being  temporary.  During  the  first  and  second 
year  there  was  erected  a  steam  laundry,  bakery, 
wheelwright  and  blacksmith  shop,  the  cereal  cof- 
lec  and  the  bachelor's  buildings — the  latter  quite 
a  ]>rctentious  structure. 

inhere  were  many  advantageous  features  con- 
nected with  the  new  home  of  the  Ruskin  Social- 
ists in  addition  to  the  delightful  and  healthy  cli- 
mate that  would  have  enabled  them  to  sustain 
themselves  with  moderate  effort  and  carry  out 
their  ideal.  But  as  the  old  hynm  states 
"Every  prospect  pleases  and  only  man  is  vile." 


THE  LAST  DAYS  OF  THE  RUSKIN 

CO-OP EKATIVE  ASSOCIATION. 


CHAPTER  I. 

FINANCIAL  METHODS. 

The  disgrace  of  the  faikire  of  the  banner  co- 
operative colony  at  Ruskin,  Tennessee,  will  cer- 
tainly create  an  impression  in  the  pnblic  mind 
that  sucli  associations  arc  impracticable.  It  will 
also  furnish  a  fine  opportunity  for  a  large  class 
who  are  opposed  to  any  improvement  in  the  eco- 
nomic and  social  condition  of  industrial  society, 
to  deride  attempts  towards  such  progressive 
methods.  The  failure  of  Ruskin  is  perhaps  of 
more  importance  as  a  lesson  in  co-operative  man- 
agement at  this  time  than  her  success  would 
luive  been.  That  lesson  will  be  drawn  from  the 
story  of  "the  last  days  of  the  Ruskin  Co-opera- 
tive Association,"  as  narrated  in  these  pages.  In 
the  opinion  of  the  author,  no  greater  benefit  could 
be  conferred  upon  the  industrial  and  co-operative 
movement  of  modern  times  than  an  expose  of  the 
facts,  conditions  and  characters  that  figured  in  a 
movement  that  was  defective  in  organization  and 
personnel  and  might  have  been,  under  proper 
conditions,  a  great  example  of  co-operative  asso- 
ciation. 


1 6  LAST     DAYS     OF     RUSKIX^ 

The  commendable  spirit  which  inspires  men  to 
associate  in  colony  enterprises  in  order  to  ex- 
hibit a  model  of  their  ideal  of  social  and  eco- 
nomic arranf^ements,  must  be  regarded  with  in- 
telligent respect  and  admiration.  What  cannot 
at  present  be  done  in  the  greater  world  they  seek 
and  hope  to  do  in  a  smaller  world  under  their 
own  control.  To  say  that  man  cannot  achieve 
an  enjoyable,  regenerated  social  state  would  be 
illogical  and  ridiculous.  It  would  be  ignoring 
the  correspondences  visible  in  his  already  ac- 
quired achievements.  The  story  of  the  defects 
and  ruin  of  so  distinguished  a  colonial  enterprise 
as  Ruskin  shows  clearly  the  missing  link  in  such 
enterprises  past  and  present.  A  medley  of  un- 
trained people  whose  most  prominent  character- 
istic is  ignorance,  cannot  reasonably  be  expected 
to  achieve  the  hope  of  man's  social  and  eco- 
nomic regeneration.  This  burning  fact  must  be 
clear  to  every  thoughtful  mind.  This  burning 
fact  is  illustrated  in  the  play  of  characters  and 
business  mismanagement  told  in  these  pages,  the 
object  of  which  is  to  show  the  qualities  requisite 
to  achieve  correct  social  conditions  and  the  de- 
fects to  avoid.  Men  are  not  altered  at  once  bv 
the  change  of  conditions.  There  mu.st  be  an 
alteration  in  the  man  as  well  as  his  environ- 
ment. This  can  only  be  accomplished  by  his 
thorough  and  complete  education  in  the  higher 
knowledge.  Otherwise  you  will  find  him  dis- 
playing the  vices  of  his  low  state  in  political 
cunning  and  star  chamber  processes  as  we  had 
in   Ruskin   under   Socialistic   conditions.        The 


FINANCIAL    METHODS  1/ 

same  vices  can  be  witnessed  even  in  the  larger 
world  of  reform,  where  often  pohcy  is  pursued 
and  truth  suppressed  for  fear  of  hiu'ting  the 
movement.  All  this  arises  from  man's  imper- 
fect mental  state.  He  has  not  yet  reached  the 
plane  where  resplendent  truth  can  shine  from 
pure  hearts,  fructifying-  the  Eden  which  he  has 
lost  through  ignorance  and  its  vices.  Practical 
experience  like  that  of  Ruskin  is  of  more  value 
than  any  theory.  The  world  will  not  believe 
such  destructive  ignorance  possible.  The  fact 
is  the  story  is  not  half  told.  Much  is  omitted 
because  of  public  incredulity. 

With  this  explanation,  the  interested  public 
will  appreciate  the  manner  and  style  in  which 
the  account  of  this  co-operative  organization  is 
treated.  The  dignity  of  the  modern  movement 
towards  industrial  association,  and  the  noble 
spirit  which  inspires  the  effort  towards  social 
arrangements,  has  been  grossly  insulted  by  the 
prominence  of  the  crime  committed  at  Ruskin. 
Hence  the  world  of  progress  can  be  better  served 
by  laying  bare  the  raw  truth,  than  by  any  excuses 
or  apologies  to  gloss  the  crime  over  for  the  sup- 
posed benefit  of  the  movement. 

The  author  asks  the  public  to  consider  the 
satire  expressed  in  this  story  as  not  arising  from 
any  personal  feeling,  or  animosity ;  but  rather 
from  a  desire  to  exhibit  clearly  the  methods  and 
characters  which  have  forced  forward  the  Ruskin 
association  to  ruin  in  spite  of  warning,  good  ad- 
vice and  opposition.  The  headstrong  managers 
and  the  ignorant  and  duped  majority  have  for- 


l8    '  LAST     DAYS     OF     RUSKIN 

feitc'fl  in  their  huge  crime  ag-ainst  the  modern 
movement  to  better  society  all  right  to  gentle 
treatment. 

Youth  is  frequently  ruined  by  too  much  as- 
sistance. Self-reliance  develops  character  and 
virtue.  One  of  the  kindergarten  rules  is  to  teach 
the  child  self-reliance.  This  goes  even  back  to 
the  nursery,  where  if  a  baby  falls,  let  it  get  up 
itself.  If  it  tries  to  walk,  let  it  help  itself.  Teach 
it  from  the  breast  the  habit  of  self-reliance. 

Unfortunately  we  have  generations  growing  up 
who  have  been  helped  and  pitied  from  babyhood 
to  manhood,  who  have  by  this  kind  of  education 
no  self-reliance  and  look  to  others  to  help,  or 
give  them  something.  The  old  Wayland  element 
in  Ruskin,  called  the  charter  members,  belonged 
to  that  class.  At  first  they  were  thought  to  be 
sentimental  reformers,  who  had  been  generally 
unsuccessful  because  they  were  reformers.  Later 
and  closer  study  of  events  showed  that  they  were 
mendicants,  willing  to  travel  on  reform  and  use 
it  as  a  cloak  for  begging  purposes. 

The  Ruskinites  who  came  in  with  the  founder 
of  the  colony,  Wayland,  or  on  Wayland.  inherited 
from  him,  when  he  left,  the  printing  establish- 
ment and  the  "Coming  Nation"  newspaper — this 
had  been  acquired  by  begging  the  labor  reform 
clement  to  increase  the  circulation.  It  was  a 
find  for  the  charter  members ;  the  begging  then 
went  right  on  for  the  land  fund. 

Habits  grow.  There  is  no  habit  stronger  than 
that  of  begging,  the  passion  of  getting  some- 
thing for  nothing.  This  disgusting  passion  nause- 


FINANCIAL    IMliTIIODS 


19 


atcs  any  one  possessin<2^  manly  principle.  Its 
.ij^reatest  field  is  worked  by  adventurers  on  relig- 
ion and  morality.  Rnskin  has  been  a  pretty  close 
second  for  pioneering  Socialism.  Whoever  read 
of  Christ  and  the  Apostles  begging? 


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20  LAST     DAYS     OF     RUSKIN 

Ruskin  started  to  beg  for  land — and  got  it. 
Glowing  prospects  and  promised  restful  condi- 
tions brought  in  stock  purchasers,  who  did  not 
find  the  bliss ;  fought  about  it  and  left  to  go  back 
to  the  competitive  state.  Some  few  stayed.  At 
the  end  of  only  five  years  three  remained  of  the 
original  1894  members;  four  remained  of  the 
1895  members  at  the  end  of  four  years  outside  of 
the  injunctionists  ;  14  of  the  1896  members  at  the 
end  of  three  years,  and  so  on  with  the  same  per- 
centage nearly.  The  whole  number  averaged  to 
stay  m  the  Ruskin  paradise  just  five  years  and 
four  months,  19  per  cent  leaving  annually. 


FINANCIAL    METHODS 


21 


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A  stream  of  new  stock  purchasers  came  in 
constantly.  The  passion  for  the  Rnskni  paradise 
spread.  Tliis  kept  matters  going  on  a  grand 
scale,  money  was  plenty,  handled  in  thousands  by 
men  who  liad  never  been  accustomed  to  money, 
and  it  went  flying  into  anything  fancy  suggested. 
When  a  new  member  was  seen  coming  on  the 


22  LAST    DAYS    OF     RUSKIN 

mail  wag'on,  the  president  exclaimed :  "Here 
com.es  another  $500.  Thank  God !  Ruskin  is 
saved."  A  new  member  came  to  be  regarded  as 
a  $500.  In  five  years  new  members  paid  in 
$66,530.  This,  with  the  $17,040  plant  and  money  . 
they  started  on  with  Wayland,  made  a  capital 
of  $83,570  on  stock  alone;  $15,350  of  this  was 
paid  back  to  withdrawing-  members,  leaving  $68,- 
220  to  be  represented  in  stock.  Of  course  it  was 
not  in  sight.  All  we  had  to  show  for  it  was  the 
printery  and  bachelors'  btiilding,  a  ruined  and 
unprofitable  printing  plant,  some  other  trifling 
machinery,  a  few  farm  implements,  22  horses,  24 
cows,  21  calves,  our  cheap  shacks  to  live  in  and 
a  debt  of  $6,000  still  on  our  land.  (Our  annual 
inventory  of  property  taken  Jan.  25th,  1899,  was 
figured  out  at  $94,072.19.) 

It  must  not  be  imagined  that  this  was  all  tlic 
monev  our  brilliant  officials  had  to  handle.  Oh 
no.  it  was  really  the  snialler  portion.  The  year 
189S  would  be  a  good  criterion  to  go  by  and 
that  furnished  the  sum  of  $27,724.06 ;  this  added 
to  the  $17,011  stock  shares  sold  that  year  made 
a  total  of  v$44,735.o6,  which  went  like  smoke. 
But  this  is  not  all ;  there  v.'as  $1,430.96  spent  over 
this  aniount ;  over  that  again  went  flying  v$8o2. 43 
depositors'  money ;  after  that  again  went  flying 
$682  difference  in  the  yearly  balance ;  and  in  face 
of  this  army  of  dollars  that  constituted  a  deficit 
for  the  great  R.  C.  A.  Ai  gild-edge,  was  $821.15 
of  hour  checks  outstanding  to  be  redeemed  in 
cash,  or  goods,  and  $88.45  of  produce  checks  out 
among  the  farmers  ready  to  come  in  on  us  at 


FiKANCTAL    METTTOOS  23 

any  moment.    These  altogether  made  a  deficiency 
over  all  the  cash  that  was  spent  that  year  of 

$3,824.89.  .  ,      , 

If  the  money  had  gotten  out  uito  such  shape 
as  to  put  us  out  of  debt  on  our  land,  or  build 
comfortable  homes  for  the  members,  or  purchase 
K:;eful  machinery,  we  would  not  have  cared.  The 
fact  was,  out  of  this  vast  sum  our  charter  mem- 
ber officials  only  managed  to  squeeze  the  petty 
sum  of  $2,396  for  the  whole  year  of  189S,  to  pay 
on  the  land. 

The  Socialist  colonization  movement  of  which 
Ruskin  is  the  type  attracts  the  attention  of  good 
people.  Naturally  these  good  people  want  to  do 
something  to  help  Ruskin  along.  Consequently 
we  are  the  recipients  of  many  favors  that  count. 
A  gift  of  $500  in  purchase  of  tools  was  a  notable 
one  during  1898.  People  send  us  'phones,  tools 
and  many  things  that  show  their  kindlv  spirit  and 
count  in  the  aggregate  of  our  wealth  and  ad- 
vantages. All  this  helps  to  cultivate  the  depend- 
ent spirit  and  weakens  our  self-reliance  and  inde- 
pendence. 

The  college  fund  is  kept  up  as  an  additional 
bait  for  the  educational  element  who  have  up  to 
date  contributed  nearly  $900.  About  $150  worth 
of  foundation  is  put  in,  the  rest  has  been  spent 
long  ago.  Amounts  still  received  are  entered  on 
cash  book:  College  fund  50c,  or  $1,  or  $5,  as  the 
case  may  be,  and  spent  with  the  balance.  All 
goes  into  the  pile,  and  all  goes  out  of  the  pile. 

No  management  is  needed.  The  former  editor 
of  the  "Coming  Nation"  claimeti  that   business 


24  LAST     DAYS     OF     RUSKIN 

methods  were  not  needed.  All  we  had  to  do  was 
to  ."bulldoze"'  everything  through  by  sheer  force. 
It  would  come  out  all  right.  It  takes  an  old 
member  from  Wayland  times  to  exhibit  this 
beautiful  philosophy  in  all  its  wrecking  fullness. 
Singular  that  not  one  of  them  varied  a  iiair  from 
this  destructive  business  standard. 

We  depended  on  what  would  come  in  on  sale 
of  stock  shares  and  the  few  industries :  printing, 
coffee  and  suspenders.  These  last  are  made  else- 
where cheaper  by  half  than  ours.  We  keep  up 
the  price,  however.  There  are  many  sentimental 
Socialists  who  cannot  sleep  for  anxiety  to  have 
the  Ruskin  paradise  succeed,  and  who  keep  buy- 
ing Ruskin  suspenders  at  50c  that  can  be  pur- 
chased for  25c,  and  cereal  coffee  in  the  same 
way.  It  is  a  gift.  Charity  on  their  part.  Ac- 
cepting charity  on  ours.  Begging.  The  habit  is 
confirmed. 

To  satisfy  the  injunction  and  receiver  suits  at 
the  final  breaking  up  of  Ruskin  in  the  spring  of 
1899  (explained  elsewhere),  we  decided  to  close 
out  and  reorganize. 

This  means  that  the  injunctionists  must  also 
get  their  pro  rata  of  the  sale.  We  have  spent  all 
our  cash  and  $10,000  to  $15,000  is  wanted  to 
pay  them  off.  Begging  is  the  natural  resource. 
It  is  beg  or  let  them  buy  the  place  in.  The  old 
veterans  of  the  Wayland  element,  the  President 
and  our  buyer,  start  in  to  beg.  It  is  the  first 
impulse.  Our  buyer  is  the  master  spirit.  He 
prepares  a  begging  letter.  He,  the  President, 
and  our  Doctor  push  it  along.    They  believe  that 


FINANCIAL    MF.TTIonS  2$ 

the  whole  world  is  waiting  to  throw  bushels  of 
gold  dollars  into  the  lap  of  Ruskin.  In  fact  the 
world  is  dying  to  do  it.  It  would  he  cruelty  to 
men  not  to  give  them  the  chance  to  throw  their 
money  into  our  treasury.  An  injustice  to  the 
Socialist  world.  All  that  is  necessary  is  to  men- 
tion the  fact  and,  as  the  Doctor  says,  "Whew ! 
Ruskin  has  friends,"  and  with  a  wave  of  his  hand 
in  the  air  he  adds  "plenty  of  friends." 

A  sturdy  stand  and  insistence  that  it  would  be 
a  suicidal  policy  to  publish  begging  letters  in 
our  paper,  and  that  no  one  ever  did,  or  ever 
would  obtain  money  by  such  a  policy,  had  the 
effect  of  deciding  the  beggars  to  send  out  private 
letters  to  a  host  of  friends  and  distinguished  re- 
formers throughout  the  country.  As  was  pre- 
dicted, no  notice  was  taken  of  them,  or  polite  ex- 
cuses were  sent. 

Our  buyer's  tenacity  was  not  to  be  balked  by 
objections,  or  failures.  The  next  thing  we  knew 
was  that  the  begging  letters  were  in  type  and 
ready  to  be  published  in  the  "Coming  Nation." 
Our  President,  with  our  buyer  behind  him,  was 
1)ound  to  ])ublish  the  begging  lette'rs  in  spite  of 
the  opinions  of  the  wise  and  experienced  mem- 
bers. 

When  it  was  discovered  that  this  old  charter 
member  method  was  adopted  to  push  through 
the  begging  letters,  a  fairly  healthy  communi- 
cation was  laid  before  the  Board  of  Directors, 
hoping  to  stop  it  in  time.  We  give  it,  as  fol- 
lows : 


26  LAST     DAYS     OF     RUSKIN 

To  the  Board  of  Directors  of  the  Ruskin  Co- 
operative Association. 

Gentlemen — We  are  at  a  point  where  the  best 
judg-mcnt  and  abihty  is  required  to  manage  the 
affairs  of  the  association.  What  abihty  and  good 
judgment  there  may  be  existing  among  us  can- 
not be  brought  forward  because  the  principle  of 
co-operation  does  not  exist  in  Ruskin.  Every- 
thing seems  to  be  decided  on  and  done  by  a 
few  men,  or  one  man.  The  association  is  prac- 
tically a  despotism. 

One  man  put  in  motion  a  scheme  for  begging 
money  from  the  public.  It  was  all  prepared 
and  presented  privately.  Objections  deferred  its 
jniblication  in  the  "Coming  Nation"  and  the  pol- 
icy of  sending  out  private  begging  letters  to 
friends  and  distinguished  reformers  was  adopted. 
As  was  stated  and  urged  by  myself  against  the 
begging  policy  in  any  form,  these  letters  have 
l.-rought  no  results,  and  never  will.  Any  tyro  in 
liusiness  would  have  known  that  beforehand. 

The  plan  of  begging  through  the  "Coming 
Nation"  by  advertising  the  poverty  of  the  great 
reputed  v/ealthy  R.  C.  A.,  quoted  gilt  edge  Ai  in 
fmancial  standing,  that  was  laid  aside  while  the 
begging  letters  were  tried  and  failed,  is  nov/ 
brouglit  to  the  front  and  is  to  disgrace  the  pages 
of  th.e  "Coming  Nation"  this  week.  We  are  not 
only  to  be  advertised  to  our  friends  privately  l)y 
letter,  but  are  also  to  be  advertised  to  all  the 
world  by  our  own  nev/spaper. 

The  result  of  this  will  be  nothing  but  injury. 
It  cannot  be  otherwise.     Such  a  business  policy 


FlNANCtAI-    ArnTTTOI)5?  27 

has  never  l)ccn  known  to  be  other  than  disas- 
trous. Agahisi  this  poUcy  I  desire  to  enter  my 
protest  to' the  Board,  in  the  hope  that  yon  will 
])revent  it  i^o'mii;  into  the  "Coming  Nation,'  to 
give  us  the  fatal  blow  before  the  world. 

These  praetiecs  are  entirely  out  of  the  line  of 
good  business  judgment.  They  are  not  the  way} 
of  managing  business  by  business  men.  It  is  sim- 
l)ly  a  world-wide  extension  of  the.  prodigality  and 
begging  financial  policy  that  lias  dragged  us  to 
th.c  ])recipice  of  ruin.  We  are  now  to  be  hurled 
over  the  precipice  unless  this  Directory  inter- 
feres. 

So  far  as  I  am  able  to  see  this  begging  plan 
was  originated  and  put  forward  by  one  man.  The 
colony  appears  not  to  have  l>cen  consulted  on 
this  important  matter*  afifecting  all.  He  has  fas- 
tened himself  on  the  executive  officers  with  the 
the  energy  of  desperation,  and  has  carried  both 
j)oints  with  them,  the  begging  letters,  and  the 
I)egging  advertisements.  The  wishes  and  opin- 
ibns  of  others  are  of  no  consideration.  His  wish 
must  be  and  is  carried  by  persistence,  by. pol- 
itics and  sirategv,  by  working  the  President's 
weakness  and  by  avoiding,  or  circumventing 
others  v^ho  object  to  his  one-man  policy. 
1/  That  one  great  cause  of  the  ruin  of  Ruskin, 
tl'c  existence  of  an  Executive  Board,  is  the 
means  liy  which  these  individual  and  ring 
schemes  can  be  effected.  It  is  the  Executive 
Board  system  that  has  brought  us  ail  the  great 
injuries  from  which  Ruskin  has  suffered.  It  is 
the  Executive  Board  system  that  has  caused  the 


28  LAST     DAYS     OF     RUSKIN 

drawbacks,  delays  and  failures  of  every  industry 
in  Ruskin.  Probably  the  only  two  now  paying 
a  profit  is  the  stalactite  cave  and  the  College  of 
the  New  Economy  (the  begging  fund).  It  was 
the  Executive  Board  that  ruined  the  "Coming 
Nation."  It  was  through  the  Executive  Board 
that  the  printery  was  looted  of  its  machinery  and 
paralyzed  from  doing  business,  in  which  this  one 
man  was  the  balance  of  power  to  destroy  our 
I)rinting  industry.  It  was  the  Executive  Board 
who  secretly  worked  the  erection  of  the  hog- 
breeding  pens  on  the  College  campus,  where 
pork  costs  us  $i  a  pound.  It  was  the  Executive 
and  this  one  man  who  bribed  the  postoffice  poli- 
tician with  $35  and  paid  the  money  out  in  viola- 
lion  of  the  laws. 

It  was  the  Execu1;ivc  Board  that  spent  $-46,- 
166.02  in  cash  last  year,  being  $1,430  over  our 
cash  income  and  all  the  united  labor  of  the  col- 
ony. It  was  the  Executive  Board  that  spent 
somewhere  near  $175,000  in  five  years  and  has 
about  $18,000  to  show  for  it  as  a  paying  invest- 
ment. Note. — At  the  receiver's  sale  our  entire 
real  estate  sold  for  about  $10,000,  including  mort- 
gages. 

All  this  is  the  result  of  irresponsible  manage- 
ment. Now  we  are  to  be  disgraced  by  begging  ad- 
vertisements through  the  Executive  Board,  in- 
fluenced by  one  man. 

It  is  the  Executive  Board  that  is  responsible 
for  the  discontent  connected  with  the  purchasing 
agent.  They  arc  also  responsible  for  the  sus- 
])icions  so  prevalent  that  he  is  robbing  us  tO  the 


FINANCIAL    M1:TI10US  29 

extent  of  $1,700  a  year  through  sliocUly  goods 
and  the  buyer's  commission. 

1 1  was  through  the  Executive  that  the  College 
project  was  ruined  and  its  funds  sciuandered.  It 
was  through  the  Executive  that  the  farm  sunk 
$850  during  McCoy's  management.  It  is  the 
Executive  Board  that  does  everything  in  the  col- 
ony by  its  imperial  will,  and  is  not  obliged  to  con- 
sult anyl)ody.  It  is  the  Executive  Board  who 
can  interfere  with  the  labor  and  arrangements  of 
the  departments  and  render  them  a  loss  instead 
(if  a  gain.  It  was  the  Executive  Board  who  re- 
fused to  issue  stock  to  women  and  brought  on  the 
calamities  we  have  had.  It  was  the  Executive 
who  neglected  our  payments  and  brought  the 
Sheriff  on  us.  The  same  Executive  was  uncon- 
scious of  a  $900  payment  on  land  last  week  up  to 
the  moment  it  was  due  and  let  it  go  unpaid. 

This  institution  of  an  Executive  Board  we  must 
abolish  under  the  new  organization,  or  go  on 
with  the  road  to  ruin. 

We  all  hoped  that  the  association  would  have 
been  able  to  close  out  its  affairs  and  start  the 
new  organization  without  any  further  calamities 
brought  on  us  by  the  old  element  which  has 
been  the  curse  of  the  Ruskin  movement  since  it 
began,  through  incapacity  and  disregard  of  the 
common  business  interests  of  the  people,  and 
that  the  new  organization  would  be  started  under 
better  auspices  with  the  more  intelligent  element 
that  has  come  to  us.  This  we  hope  and  pray 
may  be  the  case.  But  if  the  old  element  is  to  ruin 
us  by  advertising  the  reputed  rich  and  famous 


30  LAST     DAYS     OF     RUSKIN 

Riiskin  Colony  as  a  l)cgging  institution,  we  will 
have  no  new  organization  by  which  we  can  real- 
ize our  hopes  for  a  regenerated  future. 

I  appeal  to  the  Directory  to  stop  this  disastrous 
begging  letter,  and  to  protect  the  association  un- 
til we  can  free  it  from  the  paralyzing  incubus  that 
has  brought  us  to  the  verge  of  ruin.  There  arc 
more  legitimate  methods  of  managing  finances 
than  this  antiquated  and  childish  begging  sys- 
tem, which  never  has  and  never  can  result  in  any- 
thing but  disaster. 

Very  Respectfully  Yours, 

Isaac  Broome. 

Ruskin,  V^ay  loth,  1899. 

Why,  of  course,  this  vigorous  attack  raised  a 
storm.  It  was  intended  to  do  so.  The  circum- 
stances were  so  critical  that  something  must  be 
done  on  Wednesday  night  to  stop  the  letter  from 
going  iiito  the  paper,  or  it  would  be  too  late  and 
the  damage  would  be  irreparable. 

There  was  no  attempt  to  answer  the  paper,  its 
positions,  or  its  charges.  A  personal  attack  was 
made  on  the  author,  who  stood  his  ground.  The 
Ijegging  letter  would  have  been  stopped  but  for 
a  man  from  v.  horn  we  expected  much  in  the  col- 
ony, but  who  exhibited  himself  on  this  occa- 
sion in  very  bad  light.  He  stated  that  he  had 
great  confidence  in  the  judgment  of  "our  buyer," 
and  the  President  and  also  the  editor — that  they 
could  act  in  such  an  important  matter  independ- 
ently, without  advice,  and  as  the  letters  were  not 
produced  here  we  must  presume  that  the  charges 


FINANCIAL    Mi:Til()L)S  3I 

were  wronji^  and  therefore  he  moved  to  lay  the 
coinmnnication  on  the  tal)le.  It  was  carried  by 
his  vote.  The  old  element  was  victorious  once 
more  and  the  reign  of  blue  ruin  went  on.  These 
statements  killed  the  director  in  the  estimation  of 
his  friends.  A  man  who  publicly  endorsed  three 
men  whom  he  constantly  denounced  in  private  as 
unprincipled  and  crooked,  and  who  had  worked 
with  me  for  months  to  detect  fraud  in  the  pur- 
chasing- department,  dropped  at  once  in  public 
esteem  beyond  the  possibility  of  ever  redeeming 
himself.  Examination  on  the  next  morning 
proved  the  begging  letters  true  and  the  language 
was  much  modified  before  they  went  to  press. 

Sober  looks  and  blue  faces  were  universal  after 
two  weeks.  The  bankrupt  begging  letters  result- 
ed just  as  were  predicted.  We  were  disgraced, 
1)ecame  the  butt  of  ridicule  in  the  newspapers 
and  got  little  or  nothing.  An  elected  member 
who  was  moderately  well  off  visited  the  colony 
with  the  expectation  of  helping  with  money.  He 
had  been  worked  by  our  buyer  through  corre- 
spondence, but  investigation  of  the  way  business 
was  managed  decided  him  not  to  risk  his  for- 
tune. 

After  all  hope  had  gone  from  the  begging  let- 
ters, some  old  gentleman  wrote  us  that  he  w^ould 
make  us  a  small  cash  contribution  and  that  he 
had  made  his  will  leaving  Ruskin  some  $10,000 
worth  of  property.  His  name  was  suppressed.  I 
knew  that  that  would  be  a  new  clue  for  our  buyer 
and  that  he  would  never  sleep  until  he  had 
planned  to  hypothecate  the  old  man's  bones  or 


32  LAST     DAYS     OF     RUSKIN 

persuade  him  to  die,  or  pawn  his  soul,  so  that  the 
$10,000  could  be  realized  upon.  And  so  it  proved. 
The  thing  never  was  given  a  rest  until  the  old 
man  was  worked.  He  offered  to  trade  lots  for 
3,000  acres  in  East  Tennessee,  if  the  colony 
needed  a  home  ;  but  our  mendicants  informed  him 
that  it  was  cash  that  was  wanted  just  now.  Every 
!)egging  scheme  has  failed  so  far,  as  it  ought  to. 
No  attempt  has  been  made  towards  any  legiti- 
mate financial  plans  and  arrangements.  Indeed, 
the  chances  have  now  been  spoiled,  so  that  Rus- 
kin  must  strike  bottom  pretty  soon. 

The  next  morning  after  the  attack  was  made 
on  the  begging  letters  in  the  Board  of  Directors, 
a  rough  specimen  of  an  Irishman,  full  of  noise 
and  ignorant  prejudice,  and  who  also  had  the 
merit  of  being  one  of  the  legacies  of  incompe- 
tency that  came  to  us  from  Wayland's  valiant 
band  of  colony  wreckers,  got  out  a  gag  law  peti- 
tion to  stop,  not  any  one — Oh  !  no — one  man, 
mentioned  by  name  on  the  petition,  from  annoy- 
ing or  disturbing  the  serenity  of  the  old  charter 
heaven.  'The  petition  was  boomed  and  signed  by 
46  persons  who,  for  the  most  part,  never  saw  or 
heard  the  communication.  For  the  glory  of  the 
noble  signers  of  the  only  gag  law  petition  that 
has  appeared  in  the  world  since  the  12th  cen- 
tury, we  append  it.  These  gaggers  were  com- 
posed of  the  heroes  and  heroines  of  the  great 
model  co-operative  institution  of  Ruskin,  where 
every  virtue  of  justice,  equality  and  fraternity 
was  to  center  into  one  burning  sun  of  Socialism 
and  spread  forth  its  brilliant  rays  to  illuminate 


FINANCIAL    METHODS  33 

the  whole  benighted  world. 'Here  is  the  ininiortal 
document :  J 

Ruskin,  Tenn.,  May   nth,   1899. 
To  the  Boafd  of  Directors  of  the  R.  C.  A.- 

Gentlemen — We  the  undersigned  request  that 
all  communications  from  Mr.  Broome  be  acted 
upon  by  a  committee  before  being  read,  or  taken 
up  as  business  by  the  Board  of  Directors,  or  any 
other  public  meeting.  We  ask  this  in  order  to 
prevent  friction. 

Signed  by  twelve  politicians, 

Twenty  hangers-on  to  the  politicians, 

Three  dupes, 

And  eleven  women. 

Forty-six  names  in  all.  Twelve  names  were 
withdrawn  on  the  next  day. 

Note. — Ev  addressing  the  author  the  names  of 
these  immortals  can  be  had. 

Some  of  these  persons  signed  thoughtlessly 
and  were  ashamed  of  their  action  afterwards.  The 
balance  constitute  the  most  ignorant  dupes  of 
the  old  Wayland  element,  who  are  all  on  the 
petition  except  the  President,  who,  of  course, 
could  not  sign  the  petition  because  of  his  of^cial 
position.  Three  directors  signed  and  had 
to  vote  against  it  when  presented  to  tHe  Board. 
Sober  second  thought  show^ed  directors  and  sign- 
ers that  special  legislation  like  this  would  be 
likely  to  strike  any  of  them  as  occasion  oiifered, 
and  when  the  petition  was  refused  every  one  of 
the  signers  had  a  hang-dog  look  over  it  for  sev- 
eral days.  With  the  exception  of  four  persons 
and  one  green-horn  who  was  trapped  into  it,  these 


34  LAST     DAYS     OF     RUSKIN 

characters  have  been  the  supporters  of  every  in- 
jurious movement  against  Ruskin.  One  of  them 
was  on  the  injunction  Ust,  but  left  his  friends 
w^hen  he  saw  their  game  was  a  losing  one. 

Nevertheless  the  document  should  be  immor- 
talized as  having  originated  in  Ruskin,  the  model 
of  the  co-operative  commonwealth  that  is  to  be. 
I /In  Ruskin  where  there  is  to  be  no  gag  law,  or 
oppression  as  in  the  outer  world  of  wickedness, 
where  everything  is  unfair  and  even  virtue  is 
cornered.  In  Ruskin,  the  great  R-R-R-R-uskin, 
where  the  justice  of  the  Gods  was  to  flourish  in 
all  its  purity.  In  R^^R-R-R-R-uskin,  where  an 
ignorant  Irishman,  led  on  with  blatant  roars  of 
denunciation  the  gag  law  petition  ;  not  for  all,  but 
for  one  man  whose  Cato-like  censure  of  their 
crimes  w^as  too  caustic  because  too  true. 

One  crime  necessitates  another.  The  defect 
of  education  of  the  child  through  being  raised  by 
ignorant,  untrained  parents,  leads  to  looking  to 
others  for  help,  to  begging,  and  as  in  the  case  of 
^,  the  R.  C.  A.,  to  the  ruin  of  the  colony  by  the 
spirit  of  dependence  on  begging.  The  destruction 
of  the  self-reliant  spirit  ended  finally  in  a  tigerish 
passion  to  exploit  some  one,  any  one,  even  the 
old  man's  bones  and  soul,  who  made  his  will  in 
our  favor.  The  bankrupt  sales  and  begging  let- 
ters that  have  startled  the  world  through  our  own 
newspaper,  the  opposition  to  these  crimes  and 
public  scandals,  and  the  disgraceful  gag  law  pe- 
tition, all  result  from  the  first  crime  at  the  be- 
ginning in  the  education  of  the  child. 


FINANCIAL     MICTIIOnS  35 

'Tis  education  trains  the  youthful  mind, 

Just  as  the  twig"  is  bent,  the  tree's   inchned. 

Contrast  the  gag  law  petition  with  the  follow- 
ing sentiment  expressed  at  the  first  meeting  of 
the  newly  elected  15oard  of  Directors  for  1899. 

Feb.  1st,  1899. 

Resolution  by  V.  O.  Clarke : 
Extract. 

"We  therefore  request  all  members  of  this 
association  to  remember  that  'eternal  vigilance 
is  the  price  of  liberty.'  That  it  does  honest  men 
no  harm  to  watch  them  and  rascals  need  it." 

"That  we  believe  the  right  of  petition  to  be  as 
sacred  as  the  right  of  speech  (in  fact,  a  part  of 
what  the  term  'free  speech'  implies).  Wc  there- 
fore request  all  members  of  this  association  to 
make  their  wishes  known  by  initiating  such 
measiu'es  as  they  want  adopted  by  this  board,  or 
referred  to  the  stockholders.'' 

This  same  man  and  his  wife  signed  the  gag- 
law  petition  on  May  11,  1899,  in  three  months 
afterwards. 

Two  directors  who  voted  for  this  resolution 
also  signed  the  gag-law  petition. 

All  ye  who  believe  in  govermuent  by  the  sweet 
will  of  the  proletariat,  bourgeoisie  or  nobles,  take 
a  good  long  look  at  the  heading  of  this  gag-law 
petition  gotten  up  in  the  model  light  of  the 
world,  Ruskin,  and  signed  by  46  out  of  about  90 
resident  members. 

Of  course  there  was  much  excited  discussion, 
and  the  light  thus  thrown  on  the  subject  scared 


36  LAST     DAYS     OF     RUSKIN 

some  names  off  for  fear  that  they  might  get  the 
gag-law  referendum  apphed  to  themselves  once 
the  principle  was  established. 

Incredible  !  Incredible  !  I  would  not  have  be- 
lieved it  possible  had  I  been  told,  but  I  was  an 
auditor  of  the  books,  codified  the  laws  from  the 
minutes,  wrote  the  history  of  the  R.  C.  A.,  kept 
a  record  of  doings  and  events  and  have  the  docu- 
ments to  prove  what  I  say  and  a  good  deal  more. 


CHAPTER  II. 

MANAGEMENT. 

The  only  Forum  wc  had  in  Ruskin  was  the  Ly- 
ceum. Ali  other  meetings  were  forbidden  by  vote 
of  the  stockholders,  except  once  a  year  to  elect  of- 
ficers. ( )ur  business  was  put  up  and  arranged  by 
those  in  the  ring,  or  by  the  Board  of  Directors ; 
referred  to  us  on  a  printed  piece  of  paper  on 
which  we  were  to  write  yes,  or  no.  That  ended 
the  matter,  unless  the  same  individuals  got  up  an- 
<»ther  phase  of  the  question  to  suit  them  better, 
when  we  voted  yes,  or  no,  in  the  same  manner. 
This  was  freedom.  It  was  the  great  referendum. 
I  suppose  it  was  all  right  in  its  way,  but  there 
was  something  lacking  which  was  attempted  to  be 
shown  in  our  Forum,  the  Lyceum.  The  advan- 
tage of  association  as  seen  in  a  working  lodge  of 
Freemasons  was  discussed  in  the  Lyceum,  and 
also  formally  laid  before  the  Board  of  Directors, 
as  follows : 
To  the  Board  of  Directors  of  the  R.  C.  A. : 

Gentlemen  :  We  have  arrived  at  a  point  in  the 
history  of  the  Ruskin  movement  where  some  se- 
rious considerations  are  imperative.  Among  these 
is  our  method  of  government.  It  must  be  evident 
to  every  observing  and  thoughtful  mind  that  we 
have  come  to  the  parting  of  the  ways  between 
the  old  and  the  new  state. 

Our  movement  towards  the  model  democracy 


38  LAST    DAYS    OF    RUSKIN 

is  proceeding  with  painful  slowness,  often  dis- 
couraging. While  this  has  been  foreseen  by  some 
and  the  dangers  displayed,  yet  the  lessons  had  to 
be  learned  before  the  model  Ruskin  could  ad- 
vance towards  the  more  perfect  organic  state.  Re- 
cent events  have  made  a  review  of  our  condition 
necessary,  and  also  of  the  best  thought  and  prac- 
tice existing,  or  indicated  for  our  practical  illus- 
tration of  a  perfected  democracy.  I  submit  a 
few  remarks  upon  this  subject  and  ovir  relation 
thereto,  and  will  in  this  connection  consider  the 
defect  of  the  representative  legislative  system  and 
its  effects  as  concerning  ourselves. 

The  defect  of  the  representative  legislative  sys- 
tem is,  that  it  obstructs  the  free  exercise  of  pub- 
lic business.  It  possesses  the  possibility  of  legis- 
lating against  the  interests  of  the  people.  It  pos- 
sesses a  means  by  which  the  selfish  and  cunning 
can  gain  personal  advantage.  And  this  is  accent- 
ed by  obstructions  and  tyrannical  rules  and  regu- 
lations that  have  grown  out  of  the  system. 

These  vices  in  the  representative  legislative  sys- 
tem have  been  controlled  and  checked  to  a  large 
degree  by  the  bill  of  rights  of  the  citizen.  Not- 
withstanding these  checks  the  representative  leg- 
islature is  obstructive  in  that  its  operations  for 
the  organic  whole,  is  only  the  result  of  a  few  in- 
dividual minds,  and  not  the  result  of  the  whole 
organic  state.  It  is  not  only  obstructive  in  its  lim- 
ited capacity  of  a  few  minds,  but  so  arranged 
that  one  mind,  however  criminal,  can  obstruct  the 
interests  of  the  organic  whole,  or  control  the  will 
of  the  legislative  body  to  serve  the  purpose  of  his 


MAXAC.KMEXT  39 

own  interests,  prejudice,  or  ambition.  He  can 
defeat  the  operation  of  the  bill  of  rights,  and  force 
legislation  inimical  to  the  interests  of  the  organic 
state,  or  organic  unit,  and  turn  the  interests  of 
the  state  to  his  own  advantage. 

In  the  representative  body  as  a  whole,  action 
on  subjects  that  might  affect  its  popularity,  or  di- 
vide public  sentiment,  cannot  be  had.  Of  neces- 
sity the  body  must  trim,  be  politic,  careful  not  to 
give  oft'ense,  be  neutral  and  consequently  ineffec- 
tive to  serve  the  organic  whole.  They  become 
simply  automatons  and  obstructions  in  the  way 
of  progress  of  the  organic  body.  This  is  the  uni- 
versal result  of  the  representative  legislature,  and 
the  cause  of  public  strife  is  the  barrier  to  progress 
in  the  form  of  the  representative  legislative  body. 
For  protection  and  security  in  its  official  position, 
spies,  detectives,  an  army  and  navy,  prisons,  po- 
litical cunning  and  destruction  by  scandal  be- 
come necessary  against  troublesome  patriots,  as 
in  the  cases  of  Sir  Charles  Dilke  and  Charles 
ParncU. 

A  legislative  bureau  in  Ruskin  could  not  by 
any  possibility  be  equal  to  a  legislative  bureau 
elsewhere.  To  achieve  position  in  the  represen- 
tative class,  training  and  recognized  ability  is  re- 
quired. In  Ruskin  these  qualities  are  of  neces- 
sity absent.  Consequently  the  model  of  the  co- 
operative commonwealth  is  inferior  to  the  com- 
mon system  it  is  supposed  to  correct,  however 
antiquated,  feudal,  or  obstructive  that  system 
may  be. 

It  may  be  argued  that  the  representative  indi- 


40  LAST     DAYS    OF     RUSKIN 

viduals  chosen  by  the  organic  body,  are  at  least 
equal  to  the  parts  of  that  body.  This  may  be 
strictly  true  when  compared  to  an  equal  number 
of  parts,  but  when  compared  to  the  whole  or- 
ganic body  the  argument  entirely  fails. 

The  defect  of  the  representative  legislative 
system  does  not  lie  in  these  comparisons,  but  in 
the  fact  that  the  organic  body  had  delegated  its 
powers  and  functions  to  a  certain  limited  number 
of  its  parts.  Its  operations  are  entirely  controlled 
by  the  judgment,  fear  or  interests  of  those  parts. 
There  is  little  or  no  expression  of  the  wisdom,  or 
will  of  the  organic  body,  hence  the  system  by 
action,  or  inaction,  becomes  obstructive.  This 
added  to  the  rules  of  order  and  regulations  which 
control  the  legislative  system,  gives  even  one  man 
the  povv^er  to  obstruct,  or  defeat  the  will  of  the 
legislature,  or  of  the  whole  people. 

Under  the  open  government  of  the  organic 
body,  without  the  intervention  of  the  representa- 
tive legislature  to  obstruct  its  action,  we  have  the 
opportunity  for  the  full  and  free  expression  of 
the  wisest  individual  units  to  guide  the  mentality 
of  the  organic  body.  We  have  the  same  oppor- 
tunity for  the  ambitious,  wily  and  cunning  poli- 
tician to  advocate  his  schemes.  This  is  right, 
equal  justice.  But  the  disadvantage  is  on  the 
side  of  the  criminal,  because  the  wise  and  just 
cannot  be  obstructed  from  exposing  criminal 
schemes,  or  dangerous  measures  as  is  done  under 
the  representative  system.  The  organic  body  is 
not  obstructed  in  its  own  active,  legislative  func- 
tion.    It  is  solely  responsible  to  itself  for  defects 


MANAGEMENT  4I 

and  has  always  the  iiiimedicile  means  of  correct- 
ing them. 

L'ndcr  the  common  legislative  system,  as  it 
now  exists  in  the  United  States,  the  defects  of 
legislation  have  their  checks  in  fundamental  law 
controlling  it  in  favor  of  the  citizen,  or  unit  of 
the  organic  state.  These  consist  in  the  right  of 
])etition,  the  bill  of  rights,  etc.  An  individual 
unit  can  only  be  prevented  from  being  heard  by 
arresting  him  for  getting  on  the  grass.  There 
is  no  other  way.  His  petition  camiot  be  obstruct- 
ed, or  tabled  ;  it  must  be  acted  on.  The  right  of 
the  citizen  is  sacred  and  has  precedence  over 
every  other  consideration. 

A  further  check  has  been  partially  instituted  by 
the  initiative  and  referendum.  This  is  not  of  it- 
self a  basic  principle  of  government,  but  merely 
an  additional  check  on  the  existing  vices  of  the 
representative  legislative  system.  It  is  certainly 
capable  of  framing  and  instituting  law  or  meas- 
ures under  a  cumbersome  and  difficult  method. 
The  organic  state  is  however  under  its  burdens 
disintegrated  to  a  large  extent  as  it  is  vmder  the 
re])resentative  system  without  this  check.  The 
organic  state  under  the  added  initiative  and  ref- 
erendum does  not  act  as  a  unit  for  itself  as  it 
would  without  the  representative  legislature. 
This  is  powerfully  illustrated  in  the  unions  and 
federations  of  workmen  in  the  United  States  and 
Europe,  where  measures  develop  naturally,  are 
decided  by  the  common  consensus  and  estab- 
lished, to  be  improved  u])on,  or  changed  as  the 


4^  LAST    bAYS    OF     RUSKt>r 

organic  state  requires,  without  the  obstruction 
of  the  legislative  body. 

This  very  brief  review  of  a  subject  which  con- 
stitutes the  most  important  thought  of  to-day  for 
the  correction  of  governmental  defects,  brings  the 
subject  forward  to  Ruskin  for  its  advanced  es- 
tablishment and  the  banishment  of  evils  from 
which  we  as  well  as  the  whole  world  are  suffer- 
ing. 

On  ^.lay  8th,  1897,  '^vhen  the  new  By-Laws 
were  adopted,  I  warned  the  association  of  the 
danger  of  discontinuing  the  stockholders'  meet- 
ings and  the  management  of  their  own  affairs. 
The  purpose  was  then  to  contract  the  legislature 
to  seven  persons.  The  danger  of  the  organic 
body  becoming  disintegrated  and  subject  indi- 
vidually to  the  wily  influence  of  the  politician  and 
the  demagogue,  was  then  exposed  and  since  has 
been  fully  realized.  The  organic  units  are,  after 
eighteen  months,  entirely  disintegrated,  without 
unity  of  thought,  or  action,  suspicious  of  each 
other  and  settling  into  a  morbid  state  like  the 
competitive  world,  from  which  thcv  cannot  be 
aroused,  except  by  readopting  their  former  pow- 
ers, with  the  more  advanced  improvement  of  re- 
moving the  obstructive  legislature  as  represented 
in  the  Board  of  Directors. 

The  inertia  of  the  legislative  system  in  Ruskin 
has  brought  upon  us  congestion  in  nearly  every 
avenue  of  business.  In  the  very  nature  of  things 
it  cannot  act.  Building  is  choked.  Improve- 
ments arc  stopped,  or  retarded.  Enterprises  dead. 
Education  utterly  ignored.     Our  money  wasted 


MANAGKMF.XT  43 

ill  the  purchase  of  almost  worthless  goods.  Our 
food  frequently  permitted  to  spoil.  The  produc- 
tive power  of  the  printery  ruined  by  looting  its 
machinery  to  please  or  beneiit  traitors.  Elected 
members  poorly  treated  with  bad  accommoda- 
tions. Treasury  funds  constantly  depleted  with- 
out progressive  results.  The  various  depart- 
ments suffering  and  general  dissatisfaction. 
These  defects  could  not  exist  under  the  general 
freedom  and  free  speech  of  the  organic  body. 
The  way  would  always  be  open  for  improvement 
without  the  obstructive  legislature.  Ruskin 
should  set  the  example  for  all  governments  by 
instantlv  abolishing  this  defect  in  the  body  po- 
litic. This  can  easily  be  done  under  our  charter 
by  expanding  the  board  of  directors  to  embrace 
ail  the  stockholders.     \^ery  respectfully, 

Isaac  Broome. 

This  lav  out  on  government  was  too  much  for 
the  Board  of  Directors  of  1898.  They  were 
evidently  bored  at  the  reading  of  the  communi- 
cation and,  as  usual,  tried  to  get  rid  of  it  by 
laying  it  on  the  table.  Poor  creatures,  they  had 
their  share  in  the  crimes  of  omission  against 
Ruskin.  Two  of  these  directors  lapsed  over  into 
the  new  Board  of  1899  and  aided  prominently  in 
bringing  on  the  crash  which  wiped  out  the  R. 
C.  A.  on  June  22d,  1899. 

The  men  who  had  been  transferred  from  the 
free  organic  body  by  election  into  the  legislative 
as  directors,  were  changed  into  moral  cowards, 
do-nothings,  violators  of  fundamental  law,  and 


44  LAST    DAVS    OF     RUSKIN 

practically  enemies  of  the  organic  state.  They 
even,  on  one  occasion,  refused  the  right  of  peti- 
tion and  on  another  objected  to  a  member  ad- 
dressing the  Board  of  Directors.  The  moment 
they  began  to  do  business  as  legislators  all  no- 
bility and  manhood  seem  to  leave  them.  They 
l)ecame  paralyzed  and  utterly  helpless  when 
matters  of  business  were  before  them.  They  did 
not  know,  were  afraid  to  act.  The  first  thought 
that  arose  was,  If  I  vote  for  this  measure  who 
will  I  run  up  against  and  incur  enmity  from? 
Or,  how  will  it  aiTect  the  interests  of  myself  and 
friends?  The  natural  outcome  was  to  hedge,  lay 
the  matter  over,  or  get  rid  of  it  somehow.  Do 
nothing.  Let  all  enterprise,  all  progress  perish 
Ijecause  of  a  legislative  system  that  can  do  noth- 
ing but  manufacture  moral  cowards  and  rogues. 

The  last  word  was  rogues.  Yes,  rogues.  1  hat 
is  exactly  what  is  manufactured  in  spite  of  any 
other  social  conditions  that  may  be  established. 
■J  The  idea  that  rogues  could  not  exist  under  a 
state  of  economic  equality  is  entirely  erroneous. 
The  spirit  of  villainy  is  not  obliterated  by  a 
change  to  economic  equality.  There  is  no  place 
on  earth  where  the  meanness  of  the  human  spirit 
exists  in  a  more  intense  degree  than  right  here 
in  Ruskin.  Where,  of  all  places  in  the  world,  it 
is  imnecessary.  This  is  what  Humphrey  Noyes, 
in  his  account  of  the  Oneida  Community,  calls 
"total  depravity." 

There- is  a  great  deal  to  say  on  this  point,  more 
than  any  one  could  say  without  writing  hun- 
dreds upon  hundreds  of  volumes.    That  of  course 


MANAGEMEXT  45 

cannot  be  done.  Could  not  be  read  if  they  were 
written.  It  is  better  to  keep  on  tellinj;^  what  has 
happened  in  a  desnUory  way  and  leave  the  rest 
to  the  reader's  intuition. 

When  a  man  is  placed  in  the  position  where 
he  has  to  legislate  for  his  fellows,  he  finds  at  once 
that  he  has  to  deal  with  people  who  are  mentally 
in  a  poor  state,  ignorant  and  prejudiced.  He  can- 
not make  a  move  in  any  direction  without  clash- 
ing against  some  one's  interests  or  dislikes.  Af- 
ter a  few  collisions,  he  becomes  careful,  begins  to 
run  slow,  and  keeps  a  constant  watch  ahead.  He 
finds  that  nothing  practical  can  be  done  in  the 
way  of  progress,  and  makes  bargains  with  his 
fellow  legislators  to  give  things  the  go-by  for 
the  sake  of  ease,  and  to  work  the  people  for  all 
they  can  get  out  of  them.  Nothing  can  be  done 
for  the  common  benefit  at  any  rate,  and  they 
might  as  well  feather  their  nests  wdiilc  they  have 
a  chance. 

In  Ruskin  there  is  no  chance  to  make  money 
out  of  the  ofBce.  The  victim  who  is  elected  sim- 
ply finds  that  he  cannot  do  anything  without 
raising  a  fuss  somewhere,  drops  into  a  moral  cow- 
ard, becomes  cunning,  or  mulish,  and  adopts  the 
do-nothing  policy.  This  is  death  to  business,  be- 
cause there  is  no  other  system  of  doing  business 
except  through  the  legislature  (directory),  and  if 
nothing  progressive  is  done  here,  decay  and  ret- 
rogradation  sets  in.  Waste,  prodigality,  care- 
lessness, indifference  follow  and  hence  the  result 
we  have  in  Ruskin. 

It  was  held  that  the  mob  could  not  do  busi- 


'V 


46  LAST     DAYS     OF     RUSKIN 

ness.  Their  operations  were  too  cumbersome. 
It  took  too  long  to  get  down  to  business.  Every 
man  came  loaded,  cocked  and  primed  with  his 
own  ideas,  based  on  nothing  but  his  ignorance 
and  prejudice,  and  was  ready  for  an  endless  argu- 
ment, or  a  fight.  Business  simply  could  not  be 
done  by  the  mob.  Hence  it  was  better  for  the 
mob  to  delegate  their  power  to  a  few  men  and 
put  the  referendum  on  them  to  pull  them  up  if 
they  did  anything  unsatisfactory  to  the  mob.  This 
was  done.  Blue  ruin  was  the  result.  Was  it  the 
mob,  the  delegated  few,  or  the  system  ?  Which  ? 
Think  over  this,  don't  toss  it  aside,  or  shuffle  ofif 
because  it  is  a  tough  question ;  face  it  right  up, 
no  matter  how  hard  it  hurts  your  brain,  and  an- 
swer it.  The  dodger  is  a  mental  coward.  If  you 
cannot  answer  it  you  have  the  merit  of  trying, 
and,  as  Burns  once  said,  "If  you  do  the  best  you 
can,  maybe  you  can  do  a  little  more." 

It  must  be  admitted  that  the  stockholders' 
meetings  were  not  as  dignified  as  the  United 
States  Senate.  At  a  long  table  in  full  view  at 
the  left  front  was  always  seated  a  bevy  of  coarse 
women,  whose  jaws  were  worked  incessantly  with 
chewing  gum.  But,  on  the  whole,  the  rules  of 
propriety  were  fairly  well  observed ;  better  than 
could  be  expected.  Discussions  were  sincere  and 
honest ;  under  the  open  meeting  the  politician 
had  the  minimum  chance  to  carry  forward 
schemes.  The  people  were  attentive  and  became 
informed  on  affairs.  Much  that  was  crude  and 
amusing  occurred,  of  course.  The  open  meeting 
was  a  imifying  school  far  superior  to  the  disin- 


MANAGEMENT  -I7 

lc\qrating-  star  chamber  and  in(|iiisition  of  the 
lc.c^islativc  l)oar(l  and  useless  referen(hun.  Strange 
lliat  the  Anarchists  who  pretended  to  beheve  in 
individual  liberty  were  the  very  men  who  worked 
the  political  trick  to  get  the  stockholders'  meet- 
ings abolished  and  who  unsuccessfully  tried  to 
contract  the  directory  to  seven  persons. 

Let  us  be  serious  for  a  moment  or  two.  Let  us 
think  back  over  the  idea  attempted  to  be  thrown 
out  to  the  people  of  Ruskin.  It  would  be  un- 
reasonable to  consider  the  whole  of  society  on  a 
par  with  the  thirteen  wooden  clothes-pins,  as  the 
directors  were  called  by  the  wags.  Let  us  see 
exactly  if  there  may  not  be  a  germ  of  reason  in 
this  idea  of  government  that  might  grow  to  be  a 
great  tree  and  cover  the  whole  of  society. 

The  endless  discussions  and  opinions  on  the 
question  of  Social  Democracy,  and  all  the  inter- 
mediate steps  between  it  and  Caesarism,  are,  we 
think,  fully  met  in  the  time-honored  and  demon- 
strated Masonic  organization  and  the  lodge.  Here 
the  foolish  have  the  advantage  and  benefit  of  the 
presence  and  wisdom  of  the  wise.  The  lodge  is 
not  unwieldy  in  its  parts.  Its  will  is  expressed 
through  its  delegates  to  the  grand  lodge.  The 
whole  system  is  governed  by  law.  Its  executive 
head  has  the  powers  of  the  Czar.  So  that  in  this 
system  all  others  are  embraced  and  the  good  in 
all  systems  exists  in  perfection.  First,  the  law. 
Second,  the  democracy.  Third,  the  representa- 
tive Congressional  system,  through  delegates. 
And,  lastly,  the  executive  Czar. 

In  spite  of  all  confusion  of  ideas,  the  world  is 


48  LAST     DAYS     OF     RUSKIN 

marching  straight  to  this  form  of  organization 
through  labor  unions,  with  the  various  industrial 
lodges  of  trades,  where  the  will  of  the  democracy 
is  developed  and  expressed.  Nothing  can  impede 
its  progress  towards  a  world-wide  federation,  that 
cannot  by  any  possibility  be  otherwise  than  as 
harmonious  in  its  economic  and  social  interests 
and  as  well  cemented  as  the  Masonic  order. 

In  the  stormy  discussion  which  followed  one  of 
the  directors  took  an  able  stand.  He  claimed  that 
a  pure  democracy  was  the  only  true  government, 
as  advocated  by  Jefferson.  He  referred  to  the 
New  England  town  meetings  as  a  practical  illus- 
tration of  the  preservation  of  liberty  by  the  peo- 
ple managing  their  own  affairs.  And  that  system 
had  developed  the  most  marked  characters  and 
was  the  school  for  the  ablest  statesmen.  The  op- 
ponents sulkily  growled  "that  if  the  stockholders' 
meetings  had  not  been  abolished  Ruskin  would 
have  been  closed  out  a  year  ago.  That  the  people 
could  not  do  business,  but  would  only  quarrel 
and  abuse  one  another."  To  this  the  director  re- 
plied: 'Tf  that  is  so,  we  had  better  know  it  at 
once.  If  the  people  cannot  do  business  then  our 
movement  is  a  failure.  If  the  people  have  intelli- 
gence to  elect  thirteen  directors  to  transact  their 
business  for  them,  why  have  they  not  intelligence 
to  transact  their  own  business  without  an  inter- 
mediary?" To  all  of  which  the  only  answer  was, 
"Because  they  can't." 

I  am  asked  the  question  whether  if  ignorance  is 
the  barrici  to  harmonious  life  and  economic  suc- 
cess (ignorance  being  a  relative  term),  it  does  not 


MANAGEMENT  49 

become  necessary  to  inquire,  how  ignorant?  What 
is  the  standard  of  intelligence  re(|uired  to  enalde 
people  to  co-operate  ? 

'i'his  is  one  of  the  leading  question  in  connec- 
tion with  the  subject  of  getting  groups  of  people 
together  in  colonies,  or  anywhere  else,  either  to 
co-operate  industrially  or  socially.  If  you  ask 
whether  an  answer  can  be  given  to  the  question 
or  not,  the  reply  would  be  an  emphatic  yes.  But 
if  the  answer  was  involved  in  one  brief,  concen- 
trated statement  like  one  of  the  proverbs,  it  would 
have  no  effect.  It  would  attract  no  more  atten- 
titjn  than  the  choicest  jewel  in  the  entire  work- 
manship of  the  great  l)uilder,  Sol-om-on. 

Christ  had  to  do  a  good  deal  of  talking  and  tell 
a  good  many  first-class  stories,  to  shape  the  ideas 
of  the  people  to  this  point  and  that  point,  until 
they  could  receive  a  good  healthy  statement  of 
the  concentrated  essence  of  the  whole  subject. 
"to  love  one  another."  But  if  he  had  appeared 
on  the  earth  and  said  this  one  sentence  and  then 
died  or  left,  it  would  have  fallen  on  dead  ears  and 
dead  souls. 

The  life  and  works  were  necessary  to  produce 
the  desired  efifect,  to  establish  the  doctrine,  and 
so  it  is  with  the  co-operative  principle.  We  had 
to  go  through  the  life  and  work  so  as  to  be  able 
to  make  others  realize  the  experience.  We  can- 
not give  it  to  the  world  in  the  divine  shape  that 
the  great  life  is  portrayed  in  the  four  gospels, 
and  with  all  the  splendors  of  the  literature  of  the 
Golden  Rule,  but  we  can  tell  the  story  of  the  co- 
operative experiment  at  Ruskin  to  the  best  of  our 


50  LAST     DAYS     OF     RUSKIN 

ability,  and  each  mind  will  formulate  the  sum- 
mary of  the  effort,  and  fix  for  itself  the  standard 
of  ignorance  to  avoid,  and  the  standard  of  intel- 
ligence essential.  There  is  no  difificulty  in  esti- 
mating correctly  after  you  read  this  exhibit  of  the 
virtues  and  vices  of  the  Ruskin  effort. 

There  are  so  many  avenue  of  illustration  in  the 
life  of  Ruskin  Colony  that  one  cannot  go  amiss. 
You  can  begin  anywhere.  It  all  shows  up  the 
same  ignorance  with  its  horrid  brood  of  evils. 
And  wherever  you  strike  it  it  comes  from  the 
same  source  directly,  or  indirectly,  the  old  char- 
ter element,  and  those  whose  minds  they  have 
been  able  to  poison.  You  will  always  find  the 
evils  from  which  Ruskin  suffers  come  (as  one  of 
our  members  says)  from  "some  of  the  same  links' 
of  the  same  old  string  of  sausages." 

In  this  account  you  will  frequently  hear  of  our 
wonderful  "buyer."  He  was  the  author  of  all 
the  bookkeeping,  buying  and  mercantile  transac- 
tions in  the  colony.  Coming  in  during  Way- 
land's  time  he  fastened  himself  in  that  depart- 
ment. "Our  buyer's"  idea  of  bookkeeping  and 
business  was  "toss  everything  into  the  pile  and 
draw  on  it  whenever  you  want  anything." 

We  always  wanted  something.  And  no  mat- 
ter how  big  the  pile  was  we  were  like  the  dog 
who  was  chasing  the  bear,  the  dog  was  just  a 
leetle  ahead.  We  kept  just  a  leetle  ahead  of  the 
pile. 

That  was  the  reason  why  our  financier  was  al- 
ways running  around  the  colony  borrowing 
money  from  this  one  and  that  one  to  meet  some 


jviaxagrment  51 

cnicr£^ency.  No  matter  how  big  the  pile  was, 
and  it  was  something  enormous,  yet  we  ahvays 
had  an  emergency.  Emergencies  came  around  as 
regular  as  our  meals,  and  the  prominence  of  our 
great  financier  was  steadily  maintained.  Indeed, 
it  was  a  matter  of  pride  to  the  colony  that  we 
had  so  great  a  man,  who  could  run  around  the 
colony  and  gather  up  five  hundred  or  a  thousand 
dollars  to  meet  the  chronic  emergency  caused  by 
bad  managers,  who  were  kept  in  office  by  the 
Ruskin  majority. 

We  will  illustrate  and  make  clear  all  these 
statements  directly.  There  are  no  apologies  to 
make  to  the  public  for  the  style  of  the  literature. 
It  is  (as  an  able  member  who  has  been  a  jour- 
nalist says)  "either  to  tell  the  truth  right  out  in  a 
way  that  people  can  understand,  or  sugar-coat  it 
with  apologies  and  lies."  We  are  trying  to  keep 
as  far  as  possible  from  the  father  of  liars,  and  I 
guess  the  truth  will  have  to  be  taken — raw. 

People  who  come  to  Ruskin  have  ideal  expec- 
tations. Reading  the  "Coming  Nation"  and  Uto- 
l)ian  dreams,  lead  them  to  expect  that  every  one 
attracted  to  such  a  place  would  be  ideal  charac- 
ters, with  ideal  culture  and  ideal  manners.  It 
would  be  natural  to  expect  of  the  citizens  of  such 
a  community  a  depth  and  research  of  thought 
and  conversation  that  would  rendei  the  social  life 
paradisaical. 

Imagine  the  shock  to  this  idyllic  when  expec- 
tation is  wrecked  by  finding  within  this  magic 
circle  characters  so  deficient  in  manners  as  to  be 
repulsive.    Characters  so  deficient  in  moral  prin- 


52  LAST     DAYS     OF     RUSKIN 

ciple  as  to  be  outlaws.  Characters  so  besotted  in 
ignorance  as  to  be  beyond  hope. 

The  wonder  becomes,  what  brought  us  here? 
Before  we  came,  all  were  beautiful  idealisms,  and 
around  every  soul  gathered  under  the  holy  ban- 
ner of  Ruskin,  there  was  in  our  minds  a  saintly 
halo. 

Imagination  cannot  picture  the  shock  to  such 
spiritual  ideals,  to  find  the  colony  a  prison.  Ruled 
by  the  despotism  of  ignorance.  A  place  where 
the  reign  of  terror  exists  for  want  of  manage- 
ment. A  place  where  the  hell  of  dissatisfaction 
exists  in  every  nook  and  corner.  A  place  where 
the  executive  is  the  Czar  ruling  without  law.  If 
you  don't  keep  quiet,  dance  to  our  music  and 
vote  to  our  wishes,  you  will  be  discriminated 
against  in  work  and  favors ;  put  to  the  most  dis- 
agreeable labor  and  kept  there,  with  the  object 
of  disciplining  you  into  silence. 

It  is  Siberia  over  again.  Just  the  same,  no  dif- 
ference. Never  can  be  different  until  the  human 
heart  is  changed  by  education  and  grace  of  the 
spirit.  Ignorance  and  the  graceless  animal  is  the 
same  here  as  where  McKinley  or  the  Czar  reigns. 
Only  here  it  is  on  a  contemptibly  smaller  and 
niore  disgusting  plane.  It  even  lacks  the  intel- 
lectual qualities  that  would  give  the  brutality 
some  dignity. 

If  this  thought  and  feeling  were  mine  alone  I 
would  doubt  its  correctness.  But  I  find  it  uni- 
versal among  the  people.  They  feel  something 
repulsive,  some  unsatisfactory  condition,  and  act 
and  talk  as  though — like  Chi'lde  Harold  : 


I\l  ANA  CI':  J I  EXT  53 

"E'en   for  the   sake  of  chani;c,    would   seek   the 
shades  l)elo\v." 

'J'he  beautiful  surroundings,  good  healthy  loca- 
tion, generous  soil  and  climate,  opportunity  for 
haj^piness  and  improvement,  together  with  the 
valuable  properties,  all  fail — all  go  for  nothing  in 
the  general  distaste. 

We  have  a  character  here  who  is  an  imperson- 
ating reader.  Humor  is  visible  in  every  linea- 
ment of  his  face.  He  is  the  image  of  the  laugh- 
ing portrait  of  Rabelais.  He  does  some  imi)cr- 
sonations  equal  to  the  best.  Has  been  trained 
professionally,  dug  coal  and  farmed  for  the 
money  to  pay  for  it.  A  man  every  inch  of  him, 
and  a  good  colonist.  One  of  the  kind  through 
which  our  ideal  Ruskin  could  have  been  realized. 
He  tells  me  that  he  has  never  been  in  such  a 
despotic  hell  anywhere.  He  soon  foimd  after 
joining  that  he  dare  not  open  his  mouth,  (hu-ed 
not  be  seen  by  the  dominating  gang  spcakmg  to 
certain  persons  whom  they  feared,  and  whom  he 
foimd  were  persons  of  the  highest  integrity  and 
courage,  hated  by  the  gang  and  their  tools,  be- 
cause they  were  opposed  to  the  ruinous  policies 
and  business  management  of  the  incompetent  of- 
ficials, who  had  managed  to  get  to  the  front  and 
control  this  institution.  The  same  thing  has 
been  told  to  me  by  many  others. 

In  many  ways  discrimination  can  be  made.  If 
you  vcanted  anything  done  of  a  personal  nature 
and  did  not  stand  in  with  the  gang,  you  would 
not  get   it.     Shilly  shallying  excuses  would  be 


54  LAST     DAYS     OF     RUSKIN 

made  to  put  you  off.  For  these  slick  and  cunning 
kind  of  people  never  act  openly  and  straightfor- 
ward in  anything.  If  there  was  any  straining  or 
over-taxing  job,  the  officials  could  hold  you  to  it 
until  you  were  dead — or  better,  disgusted  or 
driven  away,  leaving  your  $500  fee  behind  you. 

The  people  working  in  the  gardens  inform  me 
that  they  are  treated  insultingly  and  lorded  over 
to  an  unbearable  degree.  From  this  incompetent 
department  we  are  getting  no  vegetables.  A  few 
gushed  upon  us  at  the  first  of  the  season  and 
then  ceased.  There  are  none  in  sight  for  a  long 
time  and  we  are  consuming  with  internal  fires. 
The  manager  doesn't  care.  His  friends  in  office 
don't  care.  The  ignorant  tools  who  follow  tJiem 
don't  care.  And  the  crushed  Siberian  exiles  of 
Ruskin  dare  not  criticise.  We  must  burn  up  be- 
cause of  the  indifference  of  an  incompetency 
which  we  are  powerless  to  correct. 

This  prison  system.  This  hell  of  espionage. 
Hell  of  tattle.  Hell  of  isolation.  Hell  of  igno- 
rance. Hell  without  a  system.  Hell  ruled  by  a 
majority.  Hell  of  hatred  to  intelligence.  Hell 
for  swindling  people  in  with  $500.  Hell  for  slash- 
ing money  right  and  left  without  results,  was 
brought  about  and  maintained  by  the  old  charter 
element.  They  managed  to  persuade  the  people 
to  destroy  their  common  meeting  ground.  Ac- 
tually got  the  great  model  intellects  of  the  model 
movement  of  the  world  to  pass  a  law  that  they 
should  not  themselves  meet.  Should  not  come 
together  in  communion.  Should  not  transact  any 
business.     In  this  way  the  old  element  escaped 


MANAGKMIlNT  51^ 

the  crilicisni  of  ihcir  acts  by  the  patriots  of  the 
coloncy,  by  cutting  ofT  all  chances  of  their  mcet- 
inj:^  tog-ether.  They  did  all  in  their  power  to  pre- 
vent the  Lyceum  on  Sunday  evenings,  and  tried 
to  establish  a  rule  that  no  subjects  of  a  practical 
nature  should  be  discussed  in  the  Lyceum.  The 
Lycetun,  the  only  forum  Ruskin  had  left,  was 
fortunately  protected  until  the  injunction  forbade 
it.  Since  then  there  is  no  protraction  left  between 
the  people  and  the  demagogue.  You  can  see  at 
any  time  the  old  gang  around  the  corners  of  the 
printery,  huddled  with  the  rifT-rafif  who  have 
votes  and  who  constitute  the  majority.  These 
inject  the  poison  of  hate  and  prejudice  into  their 
weak  brains  and  there  is  no  way  of  contradicting 
or  counteracting  it  through  the  public  meeting. 
Even  what  might  be  accomplished  privately  is 
extremely  small,  because  their  mouths  are  never 
closed  long  enough  to  listen  to  an}'  sense. 


CHAPTER  III. 

OUR   PATRIARCHS. 

Patriarchs  were  not  scarce  around  Ruskin. 
Good  taste  requires  that  we  must  say  nothing" 
about  them.  Good  taste  shuts  off  the  public  from 
ever  reaHzing  the  subhmities  of  these  immortals. 
It  might  be  instructive  to  study  them,  but  the 
conventionalities  of  society  forbids.  Even  where 
they  are  on  record  we  must  not  mention  it.  The 
Ruskin  smash  up  must  be  told  from  incidents. 
People  did  it,  but  we  must  say  nothing  about  the 
people.  It  would  not  be  polite.  Like  Shakespeare's 
Bottom,  the  weaver,  "we  must  roar  as  gently  as  a 
sucking  dove,"  so  as  not  to  scare  the  ladies.  I 
would  not  for  the  world,  no  indeed,  not  even  for 
the  hope  of  mankind.  If  the  millennium  could  be 
brought  on  in  five  minutes  by  the  lesson  of  Rus- 
kin I  would  not  wound  the  sentimental  "Haut 
ton"  by  a  personality.  Oh !  no,  never  fear,  I 
shall  keep  away  off  in  the  clouds  and  merely 
mention  a  few  generalities  softened  down  so  as 
not  to  scare  the  male  ladies.  The  tides  ebb  and 
flow  on  the  sea  of  Ruskin.  A  remarkable  charac- 
ter has  gone  out  with  the  tide.  He  came  in  on 
Wayland  at  the  very  beginning  of  Ruskin  Col- 
ony. His  stock  in  trade  was  a  couple  of  small 
printing  presses,  type  and  paraphernalia,  such  as 
would  belong  to  a  scrub  shop  in  New  York,  where 
he  was  competing  with  heavily  capitalized  and 


0L;K    I'AIKIAKCIIS  S7 

wcll-aiuippccl  concerns.  These  traps  were  to  a 
degree  usel'ul  in  Ruskin  and  were  inventoried  to 
swell  the  capital  stock  of  that  concern  at  $2,000. 
This  placed  him  as  the  wealthiest  contributor 
next  to  the  founder  of  the  colony,  and  conse- 
quently contributed  to  his  standing  in  the  com- 
munity as  a  substantial  man  and  benefactor  of 
the  great  Ruskin  movement. 

It  was  a  good  prestige  to  travel  on,  atid  the 
active  brain  of  our  hero  did  not  fail  to  utilize  it. 
He  became  secretary,  treasurer,  director,  never 
was  out  of  office  as  a  Father  of  the  colony ;  finally 
rising  to  the  vice  presidency,  would  have  been 
president  but  for  a  mistake  in  his  calculations. 
There  was  no  legislation,  or  business  plans  dur- 
ing all  this  time  which  he  did  not  control;  no 
thought  or  idea  proposed  by  any  one  but  wdiat  he 
was  acquainted  with. 

Like  Jay  Gould  his  voice  was  exceedingly  gen- 
tle. His  whole  manner  unassuming.  He  always 
said  that  he  was  only  for  R — R — R — uskin,  and 
did  not  want  anything.  Heaven  favored  him, 
however,  and  he  got  all  that  was  going.  Ai)pear- 
ing  always  not  to  care  for  himself,  or  his  opinion, 
he  would  lay  his  head  on  one  side  and  gently  say, 
"A  great  many  people  advocate  this,  or  that." 

In  some  way  or  other  the  founder  of  the  col- 
ony, Mr.  Wayiand,  was  done  up.  All  the  results 
of  his  enterprise,  newspaper  included,  were  taken 
from  him,  and  he  was  paid  off  with  a  couple  of 
thousand  dollars.  Our  hero  and  his  wife  claim 
to  have  been  the  bottom  factors  in  ousting  him. 
We  will  take  their  word  for  it.     Others  sav  so, 


58  LAST     DAYS     OF     RUSKIN 

too,  and  that  helps  our  conviction  that  it  was 
true.  Wayland's  great  newspaper  and  the  whole 
Riiskin  movement  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  col- 
onists, our  interesting-  hero  included. 

When  I  sighted  the  horizon  of  Ruskin,  this 
distinguished  figure  head  in  the  affairs  of  the  col- 
ony was  living  in  the  printery  building  at  Ten- 
nessee City.  He  was  transactor  of  all  business, 
director  and  steerer  of  everything,  corresponding 
secretary,  treasurer,  and  care-taker  of  the  prop- 
erty. He  knew  every  five-dollar  bill  in  the  col- 
ony and  who  had  it.  Had  borrowed  it  so  many 
times.  A  kitchen  was  arranged  in  the  building 
and  his  able  wife  cooked  for  the  printery  force, 
who  lived  at  old  Ruskin  and  were  obliged  to  cat 
dinner  at  the  printery  in  Tennessee  City. 

I  did  not  then  realize  much  of  his  character  be- 
cause every  energy  was  bent  in  the  direction  of 
changing  from  Old  Ruskin  to  Cave  Mills,  which 
had  just  been  purchased.  Being  ordered  to  make 
the  plans  for  the  new  printery,  and  occupied  with 
the  activities  of  the  great  change  before  us  from 
the  Ridge  to  the  Valley,  there  was  no  time  to 
study  characteristic  peculiarities. 

Time  is  the  revealer  of  all  things,  right  or 
v/rong.  No  one  need  be  uneasy  about  things  set- 
tling themselves  right  if  you  give  them  time. 
Every  action  has  its  Karma.  He  had  had  it  all 
his  own  way  for  over  five  years,  but  it  came  at 
last,  like  a  thief  in  the  night,  and  as  usual  in  a 
way  least  expected.  His  height  of  ambition  had 
been  reached.  He  was  King.  Had  the  under 
grip  on  everything.     Posed  as  the  benefactor  of 


OUR  I'ArkiAUciis  59 

the  colony  and  was  in  the  front  rank  as  vice  presi- 
dent, steerer  and  director  of  the  president.  And 
also  of  the  second  vice  president,  who  was  nick- 
named the  "echo." 

A  speculator  had  heaved  upon  the  scene  who 
wanted  to  buy  Old  Ruskin.  A  meeting  of  the 
Directors  was  called  to  receive  his  offer.  Jupiter ! 
No  pen  could  describe  the  mob  that  crowded  into 
the  office.  The  man  was  like  "the  stag  at  bay." 
lie  acquitted  himself  pretty  well,  however,  under 
the  embarrassing  pressure  and  retired  gracefully, 
Init  much  Hushed.  The  whole  of  the  stockholders 
had  to  be  called  together  to  decide  on  selling  Old 
Ruskin,  and  it  was  so  decided.  Only  eight  of  us 
voting  against  it,  because  we  knew  the  $5,000  he 
ottered  would  be  quickl}-  spent  and  do  us  no 
good. 

Well,  that  passed  off  all  right.  It  w-as  getting 
close  to  the  annual  election  and  things  were  a  lit- 
tle uncertain.  Although  the  old  element  threw 
out  their  chests  and  were  living  on  impressions, 
still  underneath  there  was  considerable  weakness. 
Some  time  before  that  a  popular  preacher  had 
honored  us  with  his  nervous  presence.  It  was  a 
great  event.  Quite  marked.  He  took  to  the 
young  people  right  away,  sat  around  with  them 
nights,  sang  songs  and  got  right  into  the  swim 
with  them.  A  progressive  league  had  been  or- 
ganized by  the  young  people  which  he  fell  in  with 
and  boomed.  The  preacher  was  everything.  The 
fniancier  had  his  eye  on  him.  He  knew  that  if 
edticated  people  ever  got  into  Ruskin,  his  name 
would  be  Dennis,  and  so  would  all  the  old  stock 


6o  LAST     DAYS     OF     KUSKIN 

who  were  posing  before  the  world  through  the 
medium  of  the  "Coming  Nation"  as  the  fuh- 
bloodcd  prize  benefactors  of  the  race,  red  card, 
bhie  ribbon  and  all. 

It  was  quite  important  to  head  off  anything  of 
that  sort.  The  college  movement  had  been  tricked 
for  over  three  years.  The  money  spent  and  be- 
yond recovery,  but  it  might  revive  again.  Then 
there  were  four  educators  who  had  swelled  Rus- 
kin's  population  in  1898,  and  if  the  "Bishop," 
as  the  boys  called  him,  was  to  join  it,  things 
would  become  dangerous.  The  strictly  industrial 
system  of  Ruskin  based  on  main  strength  and 
ignorance,  might  take  a  turn  to  an  educational 
industrial  system,  with  skilled  people,  professors, 
schools,  etc.,  and  then  the  old  shams  would  have 
to  occupy  the  social  sphere  where  they  belonged. 
This  would  never  do. 

The  Bishop  was  just  the  right  type  to  work. 
He  quickly  became  his  meat,  and  in  three  weeks 
after  his  arrival  wrote  a  magazine  article,  in 
which  he  said  that  the  only  impractical  dream  we 
had  in  Ruskin  was  the  idea  of  the  "College  of  the 
New  Economy."  Pretty  clever  for  the  young 
tyro,  after  we  had  been  before  the  public  for  over 
three  years  with  the  college  as  one  of  the  lead- 
ing movements  of  Ruskin,  to  which  the  innocent, 
good-hearted  public  had  contributed  nearly  $900. 

The  Bishop  had  his  brief  little  career  and  this 
was  part  of  it.  The  first  move  on  the  chess  board 
was  brought  about  by  the  People's  University 
folks  of  Chicago  visiting  us ;  they  made  a  propo- 
sition to  unite  our  forces,    Thev  would  come  into 


2 
"■J. 


'Mi 
Mr 

^4  ;■'• 


OUU    I'A'lRlARClIS  61 

Ruskin  with  $12,000  and  pay  oil  all  our  laud  in- 
debtedness, build  the  collcg-e  and  put  us  on  our 
I'eet.  We  to  consider  the  adoption  of  the  univer- 
sity system  by  the  following  September,  and  if 
not  agreeable  to  separate.  The  financier  and  the 
llishop,  with  about  a  dozen  other  persons,  took 
a  stand  against  this  project,  and  balked  it  thor- 
oughly. The  proposition  went  to  a  referendum 
vote  and  was  badly  beaten.  This  gave  great  con- 
fidence to  the  opponents  of  education.  The  Bish- 
o])  was  for  the  present  secure  in  his  seat  as  the 
meteoric  editor  of  the  "Coming  Nation,"  his 
stepping  stone  to  greatness,  and  his  star  was 
])assing  on  its  brilliant  career  towards  the  zenith. 
It  would  culminate  some  day  soon  and  it  did,  it 
struck  the  zenith  suddenly  with  a  thud  tliat 
jarred  things  loose  around  Ruskin. 

A  second  attempt  of  the  friends  of  education  in 
Ruskin  to  get  the  People's  University  located 
near  us  in  an  abandoned  college  and  village, 
l;rought  its  advocates  back  to  visit  the  place. 
Their  reai:)pea ranee  was  worse  than  a  red  flag  to 
■  a  bull.  The  financier  ran  around  the  colony  re- 
])eating,  "The  skunks  are  back  again."  The 
skunks  are  back  again."  The  Rishop  was  pale 
with  rage.  He  posted  "No  admittance"  on  his 
door.  We  will  draw  a  charitable  veil  over  his 
manners  for  the  sake  of  Ruskin. 

Well,  to  our  astonishment  and  to  the  credit  of 
our  president  he  favored  this  educational  inno- 
vation from  first  to  last.  When  these  })eople  re- 
turned he  tried  to  get  a  petition  signed  inviting 
them  as  neighbors.     Our  ])uyer  and  our  "shop- 


62  LAST     DAYS     OF     RUSKIN 

herd,"  as  a  former  sheep  raiser  was  called,  were 
consulted  by  him  as  a  hoped-for  offset  to  the 
financier  and  the  Bishop.  But  it  would  not  go. 
They  did  not  want  an  educational  colony  along- 
side of  us,  or  near  us  anywhere.  No  reasons 
given,  they  simply  did  not  want  that  kind  of  at- 
mosphere around. 

Whether  they  felt  a  latent  sense  of  shame  be- 
cause the  breeding  pens  for  pigs  were  built  on 
the  campus  of  our  proposed  college,  or  because 
the  foundation  was  somewhat  weatherworn,  or 
because  the  lumber  had  warped  and  split  and 
rotted,  I  do  not  know.  They  did  not  want  the 
People's  University ;  that  was  all  the  reason  we 
could  get  out  of  them.  Our  shepherd  let  one  lit- 
tle thing  slip  towards  the  last  that  might  give  a 
clue.  That  was  "that  our  people  would  go  over 
to  Edgewood  and  visit  the  university  people. 
Thev  would  see  them  all  fixed  up.  their  houses 
painted  and  things  nice  around  there,  and  come 
home  dissatisfied  with  their  surroundings  at  Rus- 
kin." 

Brilliant  reason.  Better  not  to  know  that  you 
are  a  hog  and  be  happy.  Particularly  so  when 
you  are  posing  as  the  light  of  the  world.  The 
model  to  the  nations  for  the  co-operative  com- 
monwealth. 'The  village  where  labor  is  king." 
Tra-la-la.  It  is  all  right.  The  socialistic  world 
will  get  more  benefit  out  of  this  lesson,  with  these 
characters  than  if  things  went  on  in  a  passably 
respectable  fashion,  so  that  you  could  not  say 
anvthing.  You  w'on't  be  surprised  when  you  get 
to  know  our  shepherd.     Fll  introduce  him  again. 


f)t'R    I'ATRTARCirS  63 

Well,  this  incident  was  the  hrst  great  hit  for  our 
financier  to  knock  the  educational  movement  flat. 
Now  that  the  Uishop  was  captured  success  was 
assured.  He  turned  his  back  square  on  his  old 
friends.  It  was  Ig'norance  vs.  Education.  Its 
doom  was  sealed  forever. 

All  was  not  serene,  however.  The  annual  elec- 
tion was  near  at  hand  and  things  were  not  abso- 
lutely certain.  There  was  no  evidence  of  a  can- 
vass on  the  part  of  the  great  number  of  dissatis- 
fied new^  people  who  had  come  in  during  the  last 
year,  and  it  was  hard  to  tell  whether  they  could 
jjc  counted  on. 

The  old  element  conceived  the  idea  of  calling 
an  informal  meeting  of  the  stockholders  a  day  or 
so  before  the  election.  The  idea  was  to  discuss 
informally  who  would  make  the  best  ofticers.  It 
was  a  great  trick.  The  first  man  on  the  floor 
was  our  redoubtable  buyer.  He  came  at  the  su]> 
ject  from  away  off.  The  proposition  was  "that 
the  time  had  arrived  when  Ruskin  should  take 
up  some  broad  subjects,  on  broad  lines,  such  as 
matters  and  plans  of  government,  forms  of  organ- 
ization," etc. 

He  was  no  sooner  down  than  Prof.  Eroome 
was  up.  He  complimented  the  young  man  on  his 
intellectual  grasp.  That  it  i)romised  well  for  Rus- 
kin when  such  ideas  were  advanced.  But  first  of 
all  it  was  necessary  to  have  a  Ruskin.  We  had 
no  Ruskin  to  broaden  out  on.  Ruskin  owned 
not  a  foot  of  land  on  this  earth.  The  thousand 
acres  at  old  Ruskin  were  mortgaged.  The  Rog- 
ers' tract  had  yet  $4,000  due.    The  Adams'  tract 


64  LAST     DAYS     OF     RUSKIN 

$1,900  and  we  were  at  the  eve  of  a  $3,000  mort- 
gage on  the  Smith  tract  falHng  due  and  not  a 
dollar  of  provision  made  for  it. 

The  professor  went  on  to  show  how  it  looked 
as  though  every  possible  means  had  been  used 
to  prevent  the  payments  on  land.  Nearly  $50,000 
had  been  spent  in  the  last  year  and  a  little  over 
$2,000  paid  on  land.  This  was  criminal.  It  im- 
perilled the  safety  of  nearly  300  souls  in  Ruskin, 
who  had  staked  their  all.  Propositions  to  post- 
pone these  payments  made  the  peril  greater.  It 
piled  up  liabilities  for  the  future  that  were  ex- 
tremely dangerous  to  the  interests  of  the  peo- 
ple, and  might  wreck  them  totally.  * 

About  all  our  food  products  were  on  Smith's 
farm  (our  financier's  brother-in-law  held  the 
mortgage).  If  we  lost  this  farm  by  failure  to  pay, 
our  people  would  be  cut  ofif  from  food.  In  six 
weeks  they  would  scatter  and  their  interests 
bought  out  for  ten  cents  on  the  dollar.  Who  is 
interested  in  bringing  about  such  a  catastrophe? 
Who  would  be  benefited  ? 

Does  it  not  look  suspicious  when  we  look 
over  the  field  and  see  how  every  effort  has  been 
made  (systematically  to  all  appearances)  to  balk 
these  payments  ?  A  party  comes  to  us  and  offers 
$5,000  for  old  Ruskin.  Our  financier  instantly 
holds  the  man  up  to  pay  spot  cash  and  gives  him 
two  weeks  to  decide.  Was  this  unusual  method 
intended  to  balk  the  sale?  The  man  did  not  back 
out  on  tliis  demand  and  when  it  was  feared  that 
the  money  Vv'ould  be  paid  it  was  planned  to  pay 
it  all  out  to  withdrawing  members,  to  get  it  out 


#>■ 


ofR  I'xiRiARcns  6s 


it"  the  way,  so  llial  llic  iiKjilgaj^c  could  not  \)v 
|)ai<l.  An\  thiiii;'  to  defeat  meeting"  our  |)a\  lueul^. 
Jlie  next  nio\e  was  to  take  tlie  $980  in  the  enier 
gency  fund  and  pay  it  out  to  depositors,  to  get 
that  out  of  the  way.  No  effort  spared  to  hold 
the  mortgages  at  the  throats  of  our  wives  and 
children. 

This  is  the  great  tuianciering  of  our  of- 
ficials of  1898,  1897  and  1896.  Financiering  how 
not  to  pay  our  debts.  If  instead  of  this  ruinous 
])ohcy  okl  Ruskin  had  been  sold  and  the  $5,000 
applied  on  our  land,  with  the  $980  already  in  the 
emergency  fund,  we  could  then  clear  the  balance 
otlf  in  a  few  months,  put  the  people  in  better 
heart,  make  them  secure.  But  as  it  is,  with  the 
suicidal  policy  of  our  great  financiers,  we  will  he 
in  debt  for  the  next  five  years. 

The  informal  meeting  to  consider  about  offi- 
cers took  a  different  turn  to  what  was  expected. 
In  fact,  it  was  intended  to  elect  our  financier 
President.  The  old  gang  would  have  had  every- 
thing their  own  way  then.  This  showing  up  of 
the  rottenness  of  our  foundations  before  the  new 
people,  giving  facts  and  figures,  ended  his  career, 
as  the  election  on  the  morrow^  showed,  when  he 
fell  behind  with  a  corporal's  guard  only  to  do 
him  honor.  Like  Cassius,  "his  occupation  and 
his  reputation  were  both  gone."  He  never  stopped 
until  he  got  out  of  the  association.  Ke  could 
not  stand  the  pressure,  and  acted  as  though  he 
was  unmasked,  that  the  whole  world  was  looking 
at  his  heart,  and  that  his  Nemesis  was  j)ursuing 
him  to  destruction. 


66  LAST     DAY3     OF     RUSK  IN 

This  precipitate  retreat,  after  downing-  Way- 
land,  running  everything  in  Ruskin  for  five  years, 
was  hastened  and'  made  more  marked  by  the 
sudden  collapse  of  our  dearly  beloved  brother. 
"The  Bishop,"  who  had  serious  collision  with 
the  Board  of  Directors  after  his  return  from  a 
lecturing  tour  about  returning  the  receipts.  I 
pitied  the  way  he  was  hammered.  One  of  his 
special  friends  was  the  hardest  on  him.  He  had 
asked  for  another  four  weeks'  leave  of  absence 
to  campaign  in  Ohio,  and  if  a  certain  daily  Social- 
ist paper  matured  wanted  it  indefinite,  as  he 
would  be  obliged  to  shake  the  editorship  of  the 
Ruskin  paper,  or  edit  it  from  abroad.  The  Bishop 
had  also  informed  the  directors  that  he  wished  to 
marry  the  lady  who  assisted  him  in  the  editorial 
ofifice,  but  the'hot  shot  came  so  thick  that  he  got 
mad  and  left  before  business  was  finished.  He 
got  the  leave  of  absence  because  the  directors 
said  that  he  would  go  anyhow. 

These  incidents  give  you  an  idea  of  the  inner 
life  of  a  co-operative  colony.  It  is  people  who 
do  things,  right  or  wrong,  not  the  ground  or  the 
sky  ;  not  the  principles  on  which  they  are  asso- 
ciated. It  is  the  human  element  always  which 
upsets  things  and  we  have  to  talk  about  the  hu- 
man element. 

The  young  folks  fixed  up  the  stage  handsome- 
Iv  for  the  Bishop  and  his  bride  and  gave  them 
a  good  send-ofif.  The  brass  band  played  as  the 
lovers  left  us,  the  dying  strains  of  the  wedding 
march  blending  with  the  rattle  of  the  wheels  on 
the  gravcllv  roads  of  Yellow  creek,  and  the  lov- 


•  )l;r   I'A  iimakchs  67 

(.IS  that  had  iTslwliilc  f^raccd  the  hoanls  and  ed- 
ilorial  staff  of  Ruslcin  faded  from  view  and  closed 
another  chapter  in  the  curiosities  of  this  remark- 
able colony. 

This  conielary  disappearance  of  onr  financier's 
supjjort,  npon  which  he  had  staked  his  all,  left 
him  in  sorry  plight.  He  evidently  felt  like  Crusoe 
on  his  lonely  island.  The  bottom  had  dropped 
out  of  all  his  schemes,  his  ofificial  career  had  prac- 
tically ended.  His  friends  had  been  so  wounded 
that  their  friendship  could  never  be  recovered. 
']"here  was  but  one  recourse,  to  seek  new  fields  to 
conquer. 

So  the  Ruskin  comedy  goes  on  to  its  last  act. 
The  curtain  is  up.  Endless  characters  are  on  the 
stage,  all  interesting  in  their  different  roles,  each 
one  speaks  his  little  jjiece.  disapjiears  and  is  soon 
forgotten. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE   LYBIAX    CIVILIZATION. 

The  Egyptians  made  a  great  effort  to  plant 
cities  and  civilized  improvements  among  the  Ly- 
bians.  The  ruins  of  these  cities  are  among  the 
wonders  of  ancient  times.  The  effort  to  civilize 
the  Lybians  failed.  Their  cities  soon  decayed 
and  the  populations  went  back  to  savagery.  Mod- 
ern archaeologists  inform  us  that  the  bones  of 
their  dead  found  in  tombs  reveal  the  marks  of 
human  teeth,  leaving  upon  our  minds  the  sus- 
picion that  the  costly  civilization  established  by 
the  Egyptians  in  the  hope  of  raising  the  Lybians 
to  a  higher  state  soon  ended  m  cannibalism. 

So  we  see  parallel  illustrations  to-day.  Even 
inider  Socialistic  Ruskin  the  same  disposition  of 
the  uncultured  is  everywhere  manifest.  On  this 
charming  Sunday  when  all  nature  is  peaceful  and 
liappv  on  the  earth  and  in  the  sky,  the  balmy  air 
inviting  a  stroll  over  the  lands  to  the  top  of  the 
clifif,  I  find  that  beautiful  nature  has  its  antithesis 
in  man's  criminal  neglect.  The  sides  of  the  reser- 
voir, cemented  last  year,  are  falling  in  ;  this  was 
delegated  by  ignorant  of^cials  to  an  ignorant 
workman  ;  and  the  cheapest  of  poor  cement  pur- 
chased. The  result  is  in  one  year  the  whole 
expense  thrown  away. 

The  next  parallel  to  the  ruins  of  Lybian  cities 
visible  from  where  T  stand,  is  the  one  thousand- 


THE    LYBIAN    CIVILIZATION  69 

I  roe  orchard  planted  two  years  ago.  This  is 
ij^rown  u|)  witli  wild  persimmons,  so  that  the 
yonng  fruit  trees  are  not  visible.  The  whole  or- 
chard is  left  to  neglect — weeds  and  wild  growth. 
The  fence  is  low  on  one  side,  partly  down  in  a 
slovenly,  unkcpt  condition.  No  one  seems  re- 
s])onsible.  no  one  cares.  Last  year  the  dairy- 
man's cows  ate  all  the  tops  off  the  young  trees. 
He  said  that  he  did  not  care,  that  the  cows  had 
to  have  something  to  eat.  The  gardener  also  be- 
came disgusted,  and  said  that  he  did  not  care  a 
d — n  what  became  of  the  trees.  The  trees  are 
between  the  devil  and  the  deep  sea,  and  are,  like 
the  reservoir,  going  to  the  dogs.  Civilizati(jn 
here  is  falling  to  decay. 

A  little  farther  down  the  valley  we  come  across 
the  bee  colony.  Last  year  we  invested  about 
$150,  and  at  the  end  of  the  season  had  eaten  over 
a  gross  ton  of  honey.  The  poor  bees,  who  so 
generously  worked  for  us.  w'ere  rewardeil  by  not 
being  protected  during  the  winter  and  but  very 
few  survived  the  frost.  Civilization  here  again 
is  in  advanced  decay. 

We  pass  on  to  the  chicken  farm  ;  here  are  over 
$2,000  invested.  Another  dead  failure.  The  as- 
sociation's mill  furnishes  the  grain  ;  cost  is  es- 
teemed as  nothing ;  a  plethora  of  food  has  ren- . 
(lered  the  chickens  so  fat  that  they  "do  not  lay  : 
we  get  no  eggs  and  practically  are  -feeding  the 
chickens  for  amusement. 

At  the  foot  of  the  hill  is  the  home  of  our  large 
lierd  <.\\  dairy  cattle;  a  herd  that  wouM  make  a 
(lair\-man   lich.     A   few  cans  of  milk   is  all  our 


yo  LAST     DAYS     OF     RUSKIN 

reward  for  car  loads  of  purchased  feed  outside  of 
the  farm  pastures.  If  we  turn  to  the  milk,  we 
find  its  history  a  recital  of  criminal  neglect  from 
the  beginning'.  Lack  of  responsibility,  no  head, 
no  management,  brings  with  it  unwashed,  un- 
scalded  cans  and  sour  milk  that  goes  to  the  hogs. 
Many  a  time  I  and  others  have  gone  to  the  cave 
v.'hen  there  was  no  milk  in  the  dining  room  for 
meals,  or  for  the  babies,  and  found  great  quan- 
tities in  various  stages  of  decay.  Frequently  be- 
cause the  kitchen  attendants  were  too  lazy  to 
carry  it  to  the  dining  room. 

During  most  of  the  period  up  to  1899,  Ruskin. 
its  officers,  members  and  the  whole  corporation, 
has  been  at  the  mercy  of  the  cooks  and  kitchen 
hands.  If  we  dared  object  to  any  mess  of  horrors 
they  chose  to  give  us.  they  would  threaten  to 
quit.  We  were  forced  to  gag  down  badly  cooked, 
over  cooked,  under  cooked  and  uncooked  food 
that  perhaps  the  same  number  of  people  with  the 
same  wealth  back  of  them  could  not  be  found 
on  this  planet,  or  any  other  planet,  to  stand  for  a 
minute.  Only  a  lot  of  weakly,  sentimental,  moral 
cowards,  utterly  incapable  of  all  business  ideas,  or 
management,  such  as  are  found  in  Socialist 
camps,  could  have  such  conditions  foisted  on 
them. 

I  pass  on  by  the  wonderful  stalactite  cave  and 
over  the  hill  to  the  abandoned  foundations  of  the 
college,  across  the  gardens,  becoming  sadder  as 
the  Lybian  decay  greets  me  at  every  turn.  The 
route  has  returned  me  to  the  rough  .shack  houses 
of  the  members  on  the  gravel  beds,  where  the 


THE    r^VlUAN    Civil, IZATION  71 

llouds  inii)i-isoii  them  iw  ice  a  year.  1  think  of 
Ihc  resolution  to  reserve  tifty  dollars  out  of  the 
stock  money  of  each  new  member  for  the  build- 
iiify  fund.  Alas!  not  a  dollar  has  ever  been  paid 
into  that  fund  and  new  members,  with  their  fam- 
ilies, are  crowded  into  single  rooms  in  the  print- 
cry  and  elsewhere  like  rats,  often  two  families  in 
one  room,  with  a  dirty  burlap  curtain  between 
them.    More  Lybian  cannibalism  and  decay. 

While  contemplating:  the  possibility  of  some 
wa\-  by  which  society  can  work  out  of  the  blight- 
ing competitive  system  and  adopt  some  arrange- 
ment of  the  economic  philosophies  which  the 
wise  and  good  of  all  ages  have  laid  before  us  to 
study  and  practice,  I  look  up  and  (ind  myself 
standing  on  a  crooked  truss  bridge,  put  up  by 
the  officials  without  consulting  the  lines  of  the 
survey.  It  is  thirty-five  degrees  out  of  line  with 
the  street.  On  the  opposite  bank  the  Vice  Presi- 
dent has  built  his  house  right  in  the  street,  ^^'■hen 
attention  was  called  to  this  error  in  time  to  cor- 
rect it,  the  officials  got  mad  at  their  stupidity  be- 
ing noticed  and  let  it  go  on.  and  here  is  a  monu- 
ment to  the  ignorance  of  Ruskin  that  presents  no 
ra\-  of  hope. 

An  opening  fn  tlic  trees  reveals  the  sign  of  our 
steam  laundry.  Strenuous  efforts  were  made  by 
the  college  town  and  the  surrounding  neighbor- 
hood to  have  us  do  their  large  laundry  business 
for  them.  Extra  tools  costing  about  $100  were 
recjuired.  We  could  not  get  them  from  the  man- 
agement. Xo  money.  Xever  was  any  for  any- 
thing like  a  permanent  paying  business,     it  cost 


y2  LAST     DAYS     OF     RUSKIN 

US  more  than  that  for  the  Sheriff,  because  our 
officials  neg-lected  to  pay  the  bill  for  the  planing 
mill.    More  Lybian  decay. 

No  matter  where  we  turn  there  is  the  spectre 
of  the  Lybian  effort  towards  civilization.  Its  las- 
situde, neglect,  decay  and  cannibalism.  The  same 
spirit  prevails  among  the  ignorant  class  that  dom- 
inates this  and  all  other  colonies  that  I  have 
known  or  read  of.  Attempts  of  ignorance  to 
teach  the  world  a  model  system  of  social  econom- 
ics ;  when  they  themselves  have  not  the  first  idea 
of  civilized  life,  or  capabilities  to  do  any  single 
thing  correctly.  All  their  undertakings  being  a 
holocaust  of  ruin. 


Ruskin  is  dead.  We  are  in  the  hands  of  the 
State.  We  are  free  from  the  insolent  demagogue. 
Our  industries  are  silent.  My  pen  goes  rapidly 
all  day  recording  the  sad  ruin.  Great  masses  of 
it  I  cannot  give  you.  At  evening  I  walk  alone 
for  exercise.  I  love  to  walk  alone.  It  favors 
thought.  To  me  it  is  delightful  to  not  have 
one's  thoughts  disturbed  by  conversation.  Man- 
ufacturing business  has  kept  me  up  at  night  a 
great  deal  during  my  life,  in  certain  work  that 
could  not  be  trusted  to  my  men.  When  oppor- 
tunity offered  I  would  walk  out  in  the  darkness 
and  stand  by  myself  alone  in  communion  with 
my  thoughts.  Nothing  is  more  enjoyable.  This 
evening  I  have  had  a  slow  walk  through  the  im- 
mense gardens  of  Ruskin.  T  think  of  what  the 
miserable  wretches  of  wage  slaves  all  over  the 
world  mi"-ht  do  for  themselves  if  thev  had  anv 


THK  c;rist  mill  at  mouth  of  CA\'E. 


TlllC    L^■|!I.\.\■    (IN  Il.lZATKW  73 

sense  at  all.     Of  course  they  cannul  judge,  hav- 
ing- no  intelligent  light,  no  example. 

Ruskin  is  supposed  to  be  that  example.  She 
has  been.  IJut  Ruskin  is  to  be  sold  out  in  20 
(lavs,  and  the  mischief  is  done.  It  is  too  late  to 
recover. 

These  thoughts  and  anxieties  are  never  out  of 
the  minds  and  hearts  of  the  Ruskin  patriots. 
Good  tender-hearted  souls.  They  are  subjected 
to  the  rule  of  the  majority,  and  the  majority  is 
the  tmthinking  mob,  led  by  poisonous  dema- 
gogues in  Ruskin,  as  it  is  everywhere  else. 

It  is  growing  dark.  I  will  go  to  my  peaceful 
little  cottage  by  the  spring  of  the  grand  cave, 
where  I  am  living  alone  in  the  lovely  silence. 
What  a  pity  that  its  heavenly  quiet  should  be  im- 
l)eriled  by  ignorant  and  vicious  mismanagement. 
1  pass  a  friend's  house;  he  calls  me.  The  good 
fellow  pours  out  his  soul  to  me;  he  is  very  un- 
easy, feels  that  he  is  wrecked,  a  pauper  to  be  cast 
on  the  vvorld  without  a  dollar.  His  home  was 
sacrificed  for  money  to  come  to  ideal  Ruskin.  A 
comfortable  position  in  business  abandoned,  and 
his  family  of  girls  have  just  reached  that  age 
where  every  favorable  influence  is  required  to 
surround  them. 

He  savs  that  he  is  anxious  alnmt  mc.  That 
the  people  who  would  stand  by  me  in  bringing 
Ruskin  around  into  business  system  and  method 
will  not  be  here.  The  progressive  element  will 
all  leave  after  the  sale.  They  will  not  go  into  the 
new  organization  with  the  Commune.  That  J 
will  be  left  alone  here  with  the  old  element,  and 


74  LAST     DAYS     OF     RUSKIN 

those  who  have  been  poisoned  by  them,  and  they 
will  do  nie  up.  "You  know,  professor,  that  they 
hate  you.  They  would  kill  you  if  they  dared. 
They  fear  you  now,  because  they  know  you  have 
a  number  of  people  who  back  you.  But  when 
you  are  left  here  alone  with  them  they  will  show 
}Ou  no  mercy." 

"Yes.  I  am  satisfied  that  that  is  true.  But  you 
know  I  have  never  done  anything  to  them  but 
kindness.  What  has  been  advanced  was  for  the 
benefit  of  Ruskin." 

"That  is  true,  l^ut  in  advancing  good  measures 
vou  have  been  obliged  to  show  up  the  ruinous 
measures  of  the  old  charter  element  and  their  ad- 
lierents  from  the  beginning,  and  that  is  why  they 
hate  you.  They  want  you  out  of  the  way  be- 
cause they  know  you  see  their  defects  and  their 
infamy.  If  you  were  out  of  the  way.  they  would 
not  care  for  these  other  people,  they  could  handle 
them  somehow.  You  know  too  much  for  them 
about  the  business  affairs  of  the  association.  I 
tell  you.  professor,  you  must  get  out,  you  must 
get  out,  you  can't  stay  here,  you  can't  stay.  You 
have  wasted  your  time  here,  your  heart  is  too  big 
for  these  people,  they  are  not  worthy  of  the  sac- 
rifice. There  is  no  hope  in  them,  they  would 
ruin  any  enterprise,  they  render  all  your  efforts 
nugatory,  you  will  never  be  appreciated  until  you 
are  gone.  Look  over  three  years  now,  and  see 
how  they  have  schemed  and  planned  to  prevent 
vour  doing  anything  in  the  way  of  industrial  ed- 
ucation, ur  the  fine  arts.  Look  at  the  college 
project,  how  it  is  kept  up  as  a  swindle  to  the 


TliK    LVBIAN    CIVILIZATION  "JS 

public.  The  lonndalions  not  finished,  $900  blown 
in,  and  all  that  lias  been  done  worth  about  $150, 
at  the  most.  1  tell  you,  professor,  they  don't  want 
education,  they  don't  want  you.  You  must  get 
out.  It  is  too  great  a  sacrifice  to  stay  longer. 
The  only  question  is  now  how  to  get  out.  If  we 
go  into  the  Commune,  we  throw  up  all  our 
rights,  and  some  of  the  loud  mouths  threaten 
already  that  they  will  put  the  screws  to  us.  \\c 
must  get  out,  we  must  get  out.  The  good  peo- 
ple are  all  going  to  leave  anyhow.  It  is  madness 
for  you  to  stay  here,  you  cannot  do  them  any 
good,  you  must  get  out.  I  tell  you  I  am  uneasy 
about  you." 

"Well,  but  look  here,  what  is  to  become  of  the 
Ruskin  movement?  The  whole  world  knows 
that  I  am  here,  and  I  will  be  blamed  for  the  fail- 
ure of  the  movement.  It  won't  do  for  the  good 
people  to  go  away,  we  are  v/ithin  seven  of  a  ma- 
jority now,  and  if  they  stay  we  can  pull  Ruskin 
out  of  her  troubles  yet.  The  example  of  the 
movement  is  everything,  even  if  we  have  some 
difificulties.  Good  management  would  bring  pub- 
lic confidence,  and  we  can  down  the  old  obstruc- 
tive and  incapable  element  yet." 

"Yes,  what  you  say  is  all  true.  That  is  patriotic 
and  large-hearted.  But  the  people  won't  stay, 
they  won't  stay ;  they  will  not  lend  themselves  to 
the  infamous  practices  of  people  who  have  taken 
the  $500  membership  fee  for  years,  eaten  them 
up,  licked  their  chops,  and  then  waited  for  an- 
other $500.  These  peo])le  have  lost  all  compunc- 
tions of  conscience  and  will  continue  to  do  so. 


76  LAST     DAYS     OF     RUSK  IN 

They  came  here  with  honest,  frank  and  open  dis- 
positions to  do  everything  that  was  good  and 
noble,  and  they  have  been  deceived,  disgusted. 
'Jliey  won't  stay.  What  can  you  do  alone  with 
these  people?  They  will  have  you  at  their  mercy 
and  will  make  it  a  hell  for  you.  Can't  you  sec 
how  cat-like  they  are  purring  now  until  the  new 
organization  is  effected  ?  They  are  very  slick  and 
smooth  to  you  because  they  fear  you.  They  don't 
want  any  more  exposures  of  their  rottenness  until 
they  make  their  point  and  get  control  of  the  new 
organization,  and  then  look  out  for  martyrdom. 
I  tell  you,  professor,  you  must  get  out.  I  think 
that  I  can  get  along  and  make  a  living  for  my 
family,  but  I  am  a  ruined  man  and  go  out,  with 
my  family,  into  the  world  a  pauper." 

'Tt  is  a  bad  thing — these  people  must  all  stick 
together.  See  how  secure  they  feel  now.  How 
comfortable  and  easy  they  get  on  from  day  to 
day.  They  do  not  realize  the  volcano  underneath 
them.  Should  this  place  be  bought  out  from 
them,  and  the  cuisine  shut  off  for  one  day,  you 
would  see  pandemonium  like  a  shipwreck  in  the 
midst  of  the  ocean.  As  soon  as  a  break  of  this 
kind  is  made,  you  can  no  longer  hold  the  mob. 
thev  will  go  crazy — and  straight  to  ruin." 

'T  know  it.     I  know  it.     What  can  you  do?" 

"Why,  the  best  way  to  get  out  is  to  all  hold  to- 
gether and  put  the  thing  on  its  feet,  and  then 
you  can  get  out  gradually  if  you  want  to." 

"You  can't  do  it.  You  can't  do  it.  The  people 
who  would  hold  it  together  are  .going  away,  they 
won't  stay,  thev  are  disgusted,  all  confidence  is 


TIIR    T,VBIAN    CIVILIZATION  // 

.mnic,  and  vou  know  the  oM  sel,  tlic-rr  i^  no  lio|ic 
from  tlicni.  Now  what  do  yon  diink  will  be  the 
<  lUlconie  oi  tlie  sale  ;" 

"Well,  1  lia\e  an  inipreshion  lliat  the  onlconic 
will  be  a  suri)rise  to  every  one.  I  have  studied 
the  event  somewhat,  but  not  fully.  So  far  as  I 
can  see  now,  there  will  be  a  great  and  surprising- 
change.  The  Old  Ruskin  Association  will  be  to- 
tally ended,  wrecked.  Wait  calmly  to  see  the  re- 
sult. Do  not  worry,  it  will  do  no  good.  Some- 
thing favorable  may  come.  Everything  comes  to 
those  who  love  the  Lord.  Good-night.  Good- 
night." 

And  now  again  to  solitude  and  revery.  My 
peaceful  little  cottage,  with  the  gurgling  stream 
in  t'ront  to  soothe  the  senses  furnish  both.  The 
heaven  of  the  soul  opens  to  receive  the  thoughts 
of  the  busy  brain.  Around  on  every  side  are  my 
sacred  books.  Those  dear  friends;  I  can  talk 
to  them  of  the  mysteries  of  the  grand  sages  who 
have  been  in  the  body  long  ago,  but  who  speak 
to  us  now  through  their  written  pages,  of  the 
great  cvclic  changes  affecting  mankind,  of  the 
great  spirit  of  the  universe,  of  the  spiritual  sons 
of  the  sun,  and  of  the  earth  born  mortals  of  time. 
I  look  around  at  the  sculpture  and  ])aintings  that 
seem  out  of  place  in  the  rough  oak  board  cottage, 
covered  with  building  paper.  The  spirit  of  the 
work  is  there,  and  speaks  to  me  in  the  silence.  T 
look  at  my  table,  covered  with  writings  of  my 
experience  and  observation  of  the  workings  of 
the  proletariat  mind  under  free  opportunities  and 
co-operation,  and  wonder  if  my  life  will  he  of  any 


78  LAST     DAYS     OF     RUSKTN 

benefit  to  the  world,  if  J  sliall  be  al)le  to  point 
the  way  to  a  better  economic  state.  I  look  at  the 
manuscript  of  the  history  of  flriskin,  which  1 
have  written  under  instruction  of  the  committee, 
to  exhibit  the  growth  and  development  of  the 
anarchy  and  free  love  movement  and  its  down- 
fall ;  that  ma)-  to  some  extent  have  its  beneficial 
uses.  But  the  sad  and  most  important  history  of 
the  control  and  mismanagement  of  the  Ruskin 
Co-operative  ignorance  association,  has  not  been 
told. 

Good-night,  good-night,  I  spread  m}'  arms  to 
the  world  of  night.  In  that  realm  peopled  with 
unspeakable  mysteries  of  the  subjective  world,  I 
forget  Ruskin,  its  cares  and  anxieties,  its  hopes 
an(l  fears,  in  the  strange  world  of  sleep,  until  the 
twitter  of  the  birds  shall  call  me  to  witness  the 
slorious  birth  of  tomorrow's  sun. 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE   CUISINE. 

The  Uuskin  dining-room  is  common.  It  is  the 
great  arena  where  you  can  see  at  a  glance  the 
good  or  ill  breeding  of  people.  The  first  move 
they  make  is  enough.  The  way  the\'  jerk  out  the 
chairs,  scrape,  or  shun  theiu  on  the  hare  tloor. 
three  hundred  of  these  slammings  at  a  time,  or  in 
rapid  su.ccession,  furnishes  the  senses  with  con- 
siderable delight.  In  addition  we  have  a  number 
of  babies  in  cribs  whose  mothers  have  to  wait  on 
the-  tables.  These  are  not  trained  to  quiet,  and 
maintain  a  vigorous  protest  against  lying  alone. 
To  this  may  be  added  the  concentrated  top  voices 
of  the  majority  and  the  clatter  of  dishes ;  children 
pounding  the  tal)le  with  spoons,  often  on  trays  to 
amuse  them,  and  you  can  imagine  tlie  hellish  din 
of  a  communal  dining-room  in  Ruskin  Colony. 

There  is  no  evidence  shown  that  they  think  this 
unquiet  condition  wrong.  It  seems  to  be  the  nor- 
mal state  with  them  so  far  as  one  can  penetrate. 
Attemj^ts  to  suggest  that  the  place  is  noisy  and 
might  be  made  pleasantly  quiet,  onlv  brings  looks 
i)f  sur])rise  and  astonishment,  showing  that  there 
is  no  conception  of  any  other  state  of  things. 
Well,  Ovid  says,  "Never  talk  philosophy  to  a 
countrv  girl."  and  Christ  warns  us  to  be  a  little 
careful  about  where  we  throw  pearls,  or  we  may 
get  into  trouble.     So  the  best  thing  to  do  in  tlie 


8o  LAST     DAYS     OF     RUSKIN 

communal  dining-room  is  to  offer  no  suggestions 
for  improvement  and  study  it.  It  is  a  golden  op- 
l)ortunitv.  To  attempt  any  description  of  it  would 
be  ridiculous.     It  could  not  be  described. 

Under  this  communal  arrangement  of  the  din- 
ing-room we  have  to  live  on  an  equality  with 
people  from  the  back  alley  slums  of  European 
and  American  cities.  On  my  right  at  the  table  is 
a  wom.an  from  Edinbo-r-r-r-o.  Unlike  the  gen- 
eral offspring  of  the  Isles  of  degradation  and 
commercialism,  neither  she,  or  her  husband 
claimed  noble  blood.  The  "Old  Curiosity  Shop" 
of  Great  Britain  was  not  remiss  in  its  contribu- 
tions to  the  medley  of  characters  assembled  at 
Ruskin,  and  out  of  its  Ouilps,  Sammy  and  Sally 
Brass'  it  had  furnished  two  worse  than  animals 
who  sat  at  my  table.  The  husband  had  been  some 
kind  of  a  hand  on  shipboard.  Elad  traveled  by 
sea  extensively.  In  addition  to  his  maritime 
qualifications  he  claimed  to  be  an  electrician. 
That  is  to  say  when  you  got  to  the  bottom  of  his 
acquirements,  a  pole  climber,  or  line  man.  He 
had  worked  at  this  in  Russia,  Germany,  France, 
Sweden,  Spain,  and  other  countries,  and  had  been 
evervwhere.  Like  the  sailors  of  Europe  he  spoke 
a  number  of  languages.  He  had  also  been  some 
kind  of  a  hand  around  theaters,  about  Boston 
and  elsewhere,  and  what  little  he  knew  about 
stage  business  came  handy  in  Ruskin.  He  sat  at 
table  with  sleeves  rolled  up  and  both  bony  elbows 
propped,  in  Ruskin  style,  hands  beside  his  head 
and  a  slice  of  bread  in  the  fist,  from  which  he  bit 
out  half  moons  as  he  watched  incessantlv  with  a 


THE   Cl'ISrXE  8l 

bitter,  sour  look  everybody  in  the  vast  dining- 
rooni.  His  wife  on  my  right  hand  did  the  same. 
Everything  that  came  to  the  table  was  grabbed 
for  by  these  ever-watchful,  calculating  and  cat- 
like people.  The  food  was  furnished  in  bulk, 
like  a  family  table.  The  dishes  were  snatched, 
and  the  food  forked  and  picked  over  by  them  as 
though  it  stunk.  l>y  the  time  the  dish  got  around 
iliere  was  usually  left  the  bones  and  the  fat  of 
meat  for  the  rest.  This  was  Libert)',  Equality, 
I'raternit),  for  God  Almighty  me,  and  to  the 
devil  with  the  other  Socialists.  The  same  prac- 
tice was  common  all  over  the  dining-room. 

Well,  large-minded  and  large-hearted  i)eople 
don't  mind  these  little  things.  Like  Christ  they 
say  to  themselves,  all  right,  let  them  have  it.  If 
they  want  to  act  the  hog,  let  them  act  it.  How 
beautiful  this  doctrine  and  practice  seems  when 
you  keep  it  up  for  about  eight  to  ten  thousand 
times,  but  when  it  gets  to  be  a  perpetual  thing 
and  you  have  given  up  all  hope  of  ever  getting 
anytiiing  to  eat  again  during  the  lifetime  of  these 
grabbers,  then  there  begins  to  creep  into  the 
sweet,  angelic  paradise  of  the  heart  a  burning 
desire  to  get  them  out  of  the  way,  and  if  a  dyna- 
mite bomb  would  help  them  to  the  happv  hunting- 
ground,  the  last  nickel  you  owned  in  the  world 
would  be  gladly  contributed  to  purchase  the 
bomb.    We  called  them  Brother  and  Sister. 

The  male  member  of  this  admirable  pair  had 
been  elected  a  director,  through  a  schism,  by  par- 
lies who  wanted  to  root  out  the  old,  worthless 
charter  stock.    He  was  a  good  meat  for  the  poli- 


82  LAST     DAYS     OF     RUSKIN 

ticians,  and  they  used  him  as  a  tool  to  stab  the 
honest  and  intelhgent  Sociahsts  who  elected  him. 
At  the  end  of  his  term  he  was  leveled,  receiving- 
only  three  votes,  our  financier  and  his  wife  and 
his  own.  His  downfall,  like  all  of  his  kind, 
caused  him  to  sink  into  silence  and  adopt  the  part 
of  cunning. 

At  our  table  there  are  three  families.  One  fam- 
ilv  of  hogs.  Another  family  of  good,  modest 
people,  very  religious  and  soft.  This  family  will 
take  any  injury  and  indignity,  even  be  starved 
and  not  say  anything.  The  last  family,  myself 
and  wife,  with  a  little  motherless  colony  girl 
whom  we  are  caring  for,  are  the  ones  who  fare 
the  worst.  We  are  old  people  with  an  orphan 
child,  but  that  makes  no  difference  to  the  hogs 
who  grunt  and  snicker  with  pleasure  when  they 
see  others  injured. 

I  have  to  touch  upon  these  different  characters 
as  I  go  along.  They  illustrate  the  condition  of 
affairs.  The  social  state.  And  with  them  is  in- 
volved that  spirit  of  the  history  most  important 
to  know. 

It  would  be  a  sorry  condition  of  things  if  there 
were  none  who  were  generous  and  good.  At  an- 
other table  where  the  whole  of  the  people  are  of 
a  different  stamp,  they  are  at  great  pains  to  di- 
vide the  food  equally.  In  a  pleasant  way  they 
share  out  the  fat  and  the  lean  of  the  meat,  and  if 
one  has  the  bone  to-day  the  next  one  takes  it  to- 
morrow, and  its  turn  goes  aroimd  regularl}-.  And 
so  it  is  with  the  other  dishes.    Careful  considera- 


THE   CUISINE  !^3 

tion  for  each  other,  even  with  the  disadvantage  of 
communal  dishes,  makes  the  meal  a  pleasure. 

This  is,  however,  exceptional,  with  the  aver- 
age Colonist  1  would  not  advise  the  adoption  of 
communal  dishes  as  a  system.  If  each  one  bought 
and  i)aid  for  their  food  on  the  restaurant  plan, 
there  could  be  no  room  for  the  wretched  feeling 
<{  dissatisfaction  that  takes  possession  of  every- 
body three  times  a  day,  and  contributes  perhaps 
more  than  any  other  cause  to  discontent  under 
the  communal  dining-room  system. 

All  writers  on  colony  life  and  experience  claim 
the  extravagant  cost  of  the  communal  cuisine ;  on 
sugar  alone  there  is  a  saving  of  two-thirds  by 
adopting  the  restaurant  system.  With  us,  at  any 
time  you  can  see  a  child,  and  grown  person,  too, 
for  that  matter,  piling  in  six,  seven,  eight  and 
nine  spoonfuls  of  sugar  in  tea,  or  coffee,  and  pil- 
ing it  up  on  any  other  dish  where  it  can  be  used. 
At  their  own  homes  they  could  not  afiford  it. 
Singularly  enough  the  angel  parents  regard  the 
extravagant  darlings  as  being  all  right,  the  asso- 
ciation pays  for  it. 

When  we  downed  the  Free  Lovers  in  1898  and 
put  Socialists  in  office  the  practice  was  intro- 
duced of  having  music  at  dinner  time.  The  cf- 
k'ct  was  excellent  for  a  while,  but  soon  wore  off. 
The  players  wanted  dinner  before  it  was  all 
grabbed  up  and  performed  reluctantly.  Besides, 
the  noise  and  racket  at  the  tables  increased,  and 
destroyed  the  well-bred  quiet  thai  should  have 
reigned  as  a  compliment  to  those  who  sacrificed 
on  the  altar  of  music.     So  in  'a  brief  period  we 


84  LAST     DAYS     OF     RUSKIN 

relapsed  again  to  Caliban  brutishness  and  the 
meal  became  a  coal  and  water  tank  station. 

The  Rnskin  waiter  on  table  arrives  five  min- 
utes before  meals,  goes  to  the  slide  in  ranks  for 
the  food.  Places  it  on  the  table  anywhere,  gen- 
erally on  one  end.  Brings  coffee  if  she  does  not 
forget  it.  Stands  looking  all  over  the  dining- 
room  ;  cannot  get  her  attention,  or  else  sits  down, 
helps  herself  and  begins  eating,  blissfully  uncon- 
scious that  }ou  are  sitting  with  empt\-  plate  and 
everything  out  of  reach.  If  you  succeed  in  get- 
ting attention  and  have  anytljing  handed  to  you, 
it  is  passed  over  with  head  averted  looking  in 
some  other  direction,  or  set  down  right,  or  left, 
at  the  handiest  place.  After  you  make  your  meal 
as  best  you  can,  the  waiter  rushes  to  get  the 
dishes  washed,  which  is  done  up  in  quick  order. 
Then  the  job  is  over.  One  hour  to  each  meal  and 
the  day's  work  is  done.  Pay  drawn  each  week 
the  same  as  every  other  laborer.  The  waiter  is 
independent,  no  servant.  Resents  it  if  you  ask 
her  for  anxthing.  Too  ignorant  to  know  the 
pride,  or  pleasure,  of  being  obliging.  She  is  a 
Socialist.  As  good  as  anybod\'.  Better  than  any- 
body. 

Besides  the  awful  waste  of  bad  management, 
dense  ignorance  and  indifference  of  these  great 
lights  of  reform  who  are  posing  before  the  world 
as  models  of  perfection,  to  bring  the  nations  up 
to  their  sublime  ideal,  we  have  under  the  method 
of  the  ]\uskin  cuisine  an  o])])orlunity  for  the  dis- 
play of  all  the  meanest  traits  of  character  promi- 
nent, or  latent  in  the  low  bred  and   untrained. 


r. 


THE  CUISINE  85 

Uiuler  no  uther  circuinsiaiiccs  can  llic  vileness  of 
the  ignorant  human  heart  he  so  spectacularly  ex- 
hihited  as  at  a  tahle  where  food  is  chstributed  ac- 
cording- to  the  Ruskin  method.  Hie  revolting- 
exhibitions  seen  at  Ruskin  are  only  paralleled  in 
the  steerages  of  ocean  steamships  carrying-  the 
degraded  scum  of  Europe  to  our  shores.  These 
aggregations  of  wretches  bottled  in  the  steerages 
of  steamships,  exhibit  more  demonstration  and 
ferocity  than  is  seen  in  Ruskin,  but  not  a  whit 
less  meanness,  sly  cunning,  or  hoggishness,  to  in- 
tercept others  in  the  pick  and  quantity  of  food, 
which  they  through  depraved,  greedy  appetites 
gormandize  themselves  with,  until  the  excess  rots 
in  their  overpowered  stomachs. 

The  practice  of  using  individual  dishes  with 
each  one's  portion  private,  would  be  a  great  im- 
]jrovement  on  the  present  system  of  the  whole  of 
the  food  being  placed  in  a  large  disli,  and  grabbed 
at  by  the  quickest  and  most  audacious  for  the 
best  and  largest  quantity.  While  the  modest  and 
refined  are  in  every  instance  forced  to  wait  for 
the  scraps,  bones,  or  be  told  that  there  is  no  more 
and  must  go  without.  In  Ruskin  some  of  us 
have  a  saying.  "God  bless  the  hogs,  for  they  shall 
inherit  the  earth."  .-\nd  they  certainly  do,  with- 
'•ui  fail. 

The  effect  of  Ruskin's  common  dining  room 
was  to  destroy  all  the  dignity  and  charm  which 
attaches  to  the  repast  and  makes  it  so  prominent 
a  feature  in  civilized  life.  There  was  no  more 
-entiment  of  humanilv  about  the  life  of  tliu  dining 


86  LAST     DAYS     OF     RUSK  IN 

rcjoni  than  there  was  about  a  coal  and  water 
tank. 

Under  all  tiiese  inlluences  the  children  lost 
[heir  manners,  became  the  prominent  feature  for 
rudeness  and  noise,  to  which  the  parents  seem 
to  be  insensible,  and  acted  as  though  it  was  a 
blessing  to  be  in  a  place  where  children  could 
maintain  pandemonium  without  restriction.  All 
were  free  to  do  as  they  pleased.  As  they  pleased 
was  crude  and  disagreeable.  Some  parents  told 
me  that  in  the  general  influence  they  had  lost 
all  control  of  formerly  tractable  children. 

I  would  not  dare  to  tell  you  that  a  lady  who 
was  a  highly  cultivated  and  superior  vocalist, 
with  a  gifted  voice,  raised  in  one  of  our  largest 
cities  and  a  very  pleasant,  agreeable  woman,  used 
to  put  butter  on  her  bread  and  hold  it  in  her 
hand  higher  than  her  head  while  she  was  eating 
it.  Her  husband  did  the  same,  but  I  would  not 
tell  it,  because  no  one  would  believe  such  a  thing 
could  exist  in  cultured  Ruskin.  The  hope  of  the 
ages.  The  place  where  all  was  in  an  ideal  state. 
A  dream  of  paradise.  Xo,  indeed.  It  would  not 
be  wise  to  mention  such  a  fact.  One  would  be 
subjected  to  the  suspicion  of  exaggerating.  It 
would  have  to  be  told  to  very  intimate  friends, 
who  had  absolute  confidence  in  your  statements. 

Really,  one  ought  to  give  the  public  an  idea 
of  the  dining  room  at  old  Ruskin,  say.  in  the 
beginning  of  1896,  but  it  cannot  be  done.  The 
live,  real  thing  would  have  to  be  seen.  How  to 
describe  the  beer  saloon  noise,  the  hawking  and 
spitting  on  the  floor,  sitting  in  the  dining  room 


TiiK  cnsrxR  87 

with  hats  on.  women  whispering  behind  their 
hands  about  one  another,  the  Hies  on  tlie  iHshes, 
doi;s  at  Hlxn'ty  to  walk  around  the  tables,  and  an 
oecasional  pig^  break  in  and  tear  around  for  a 
whde,  is  beyond  all  literary  skill.  I  saw  a  younj^^ 
touf;h  reach  with  his  hand  for  the  dish  of  fried 
eg-gs.  give  a  yell,  grab  a  fistful  of  eggs  and 
scjueeze  them  through  his  fingers,  out  of  an 
abandoned  spirit  of  devilishness.  Nothing  was 
done  about  it.  nothing  could  be  done.  There  was 
no  discipline. 

There  was  no  outcome  for  the  better,  from  thi^ 
low  state  of  social  life.  This  class  of  people  know 
no  better.  They  have  no  conception  of  any  other 
.state.  On  their  faces  is  the  discontented,  hope- 
less look.  Dissati-sfied  and  feel  mean,  but  do  not 
Icnow  what  is  the  matter,  and  do  not  realize  that 
life  could  be  otherwise.  You  cannot  work  in  any 
other  idea  on  them  even  by  strategy.  They  don't 
want  it.  They  are  used  to  this  hog-way  of  living 
and  it  will  do.  Tt  is  good  enough  for  them.  Oh  ! 
God,  manners !  They  never  conceived  of  sucli  a 
thing  as  manners.  Elbows,  props,  shovelling  it 
in,  eating  out  of  hands,  handling  pancakes  with 
fingers  and  slinging  them  on  the  plates. 

Ti  takes  a  good  deal  of  Socialism  to  be  obliged 
to  sit  at  table  day  after  day,  three  times  a  day, 
and  be  compelled  to  look  at  grown  men  pour 
cofifee  out  in  the  saucer,  then  with  elbows  propped 
on  the  table,  hold  it  to  their  mouths,  sucking  it  in 
gradually  and  breathing  cliannels  in  the  cofi'ee 
through  their  nostrils,  besides  all  the  other  rough 
ways  of  eating.     Rut  then  we  must  do  and  sufTer 


OS  LAST     DAYS     OF     RUSKIN 

anything  for  Ruskin,  and  after  all  the  doing,  all 
the  suffering,  these  same  insensible  people  will 
drag  Ruskin  and  you  too  down  into  a  low  state 
which  ends  in  animalism. 

The  effect  of  loathsome  manners  upon  refined 
people  is  something  terrible.  It  is  torture.  They 
prefer  death.  On  the  ignorant  themselves  it  is 
irritating,  although  they  are  insensible  to  the 
cause.  I  have  observed  that  this  class  does  not 
like  to  have  attention  called  to  defects  of  their 
own  kind  by  a  superiof  bred  person,  and  resent 
it  from  a  feeling  that  they  themselves  are  in- 
cluded in  the  criticism.  One  of  their  own  kind 
can  do  it  with  impunity.  This  is  evidence  of 
class  consciousness. 

It  is  painfully  apparent  that  a  heterogenous  lot 
of  people  from  the  lowest  Dago  up  to  the  well 
bred,  cannot  by  any  possibility  exist  in  forced 
contact,  in  a  place  like  a  communal  dining  room, 
or  under  other  communal  interests,  where  things, 
f^an  be  and  are  made  disagreeable.  It  is  to  educa- 
tion that  we  must  look  for  hope. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

I'.DL'CATKJN. 

■"Wheii  ii:,aioranoc  reigns  in  society  and  dis- 
order in  the  minds  of  men,  laws  are  mnltiplied  ; 
each  fresh  law  being  a  miscalculation,  men  are 
continually  led  to  demand  from  it  what  can  pro- 
ceed only  from  themselves,  from  their  own  edu- 
cation and  morality." — Dallo\ . 

Three  and  a  half  years  ago  a  I'me  opportunity 
to  open  an  industrial  college  and  workshops  on 
an  extensive  scale  in  Ohio  was  laid  aside  for 
what  was  believed  to  be  a  greater  opportunity  for 
spreading  industrial  and  art  knowledge  under  the 
co-operative  system  of  Ruskin.  Alas !  how  sad  a 
disappointment.  To-day  there  is  not  a  dollar's 
worth  of  anything  contributed  towards  this  foun- 
dation stone  of  society.  The  money  sent  in  by 
the  public  to  build  the  college  has  been  squan- 
dered in  the  reckless  management  that  has  oblit- 
erated Ruskin  and  all  our  hopes  for  an  educated 
industrial  community. 

in  the  spring  of  1896  the  effort  was  made  in 
the  rough  shack  schoolhouse  at  old  Ruskin  to  start 
educatiiin.  A  lot  of  untrained,  self-willed  cliildren 
of  untrained,  self-willed  parents,  were  gath- 
ered in.  That  is  to  say.  provided  they  wanted  to 
come.  If  they  did  not,  there  was  no  way  of  en- 
forcing discipline,  or  of  compulsory  education. 
The  children  were  the  product  of  the  animalism 


OO  LAST     DAYS     OF     RUSKIN 

.jI  i  iicir  parents  in  the  first  place.  The  history  of 
their  parents'  lives  could  be  read  in  the  constitu- 
tions and  physiognomies  of  the  children.  They 
had  since  the  colony  began  (then  twenty  months) 
been  running  the  woods  like  rabbits,  and  so  far 
as  orderly,  civilized  life  went,  there  was  no  per- 
ceptible difference  between  them  and  the  droves 
of  pigs  that  constituted  the  most  distinguished 
feature  in  the  streets  of  Ruskin. 

This  medley  offspring  of  parents,  who  showed 
::i  their  lineaments,  their  actions  and  expression, 
physical  and  mental  imperfections,  were  gathered 
into  the  smair  uninviting  shack  of  a  schoolhouse 
to  educate.  A  few  odds  and  ends  of  school  books 
constituted  the  material  for  class  work.  One 
teacher  was  to  handle  all  students  from  a.  b.  c.  to 
the  high  school  grade.  Of  course  there  was  no 
way  of  organizing  under  the  district  school  sys- 
tem, to  accomplish  systematic  work  along  that 
line,  so  the  objective  plan  of  instruction  was  in- 
troduced. 

The  elements  of  things  were  taught  largely  by 
drawing  and  modeling.  To  attempt  to  describe 
the  scenes  among  this  medley  of  children  during 
school  session  would  subject  the  experienced 
teacher  to  the  suspicion  of  incompetence.  The 
disorganized  character  and  spirit  of  the  youth 
was  beyond  all  belief.  They  had  no  respect  for 
their  work,  the  school,  or  the  teacher.  No  re- 
spect for  order  or  any  of  the  civilized  rules  and 
conditions  of  life.  They  were  a  bedlam  of  wild 
maniacs,  impossible  of  control.  The  parents  did 
not  believe  in  control.     Thev  were  one  and  all 


THE    GRIST    MiLL   AND    SCHOOL    CHILDREN.. 


ICniHATTON  91 

pliilosophers  of  al)solnle  freedom.  Do  as  you 
please,  and  we  had  it.  are  iiaviiitj-  it,  and  are  l)e- 
iiij;-  wiped  out  of  existence  l)y  it. 

I  am  now  sitting  alone  in  the  shack  of  a  school- 
house  at  new  Ruskin  appropriated  to  the  arts 
during  vacation.  Some  of  the  desks  are  taken 
up  and  piled  to  make  room  for  the  easels  and  a 
weaving  loom  wdiich  I  am  constructing  in  order 
to  introduce  the  art  of  weaving  into  tiie  col- 
ony. Last  vacation  I  modeled  the  bust  of  John 
Ruskin  to  get  up  an  interest  in  the  fine  arts.  The 
pupils  of  the  painting  class,  improvised  to  con- 
tinue the  interest,  have  not  arrived.  Their  own 
feelings  and  wishes  are  the  sole  regulations  con- 
trolling study  in  Ruskin  ;  consequently  the  un- 
formed mind  of  youth  squanders  opportunity  and 
rapidly  drifts  back  to  the  indifferent,  or  savage 
state. 

My  time  is  valuable,  work  waiting  for  me  in 
all  directions,  but  I  must  fretfully  waste  a  por- 
tion of  it  on  the  untrained  children  of  untrained 
parents,  who  compose  this  aggregation  of  people 
engaged  in  demonstrating  the  working  qualities 
of  a  Socialistic  colony.  I  naturally  look  from 
one  easel  to  the  other  at  the  work  of  the  pupils, 
landscape,  animals,  marine  and  flowers  engage 
the  attention  in  rapid  succession.  My  mind  is 
swiftly  carried  back  to  the  societies  of  cultured 
aesthetics  in  the  various  cities  of  the  Xew  and 
Old  World  where  I  have  lived  ;  to  the  gatherings 
of  amateurs  before  the  splendid  productions  of 
artistic  thought;  contrasting  the  elegance  of  life 
imder  such  conditions  with  the  present  crude  so- 


92  LAST     DAYS     OF     RUSKIN 

cial  elements  we  have  here  in  Ruskin,  and  I  won- 
der what  will  be  the  outcome  of  the  unorganized 
social  state  at  present  existing  with  us. 

Strenuous  efforts  had  been  made  during  the 
first  year  to  bring  order  out  of  chaos.  A  schism 
between  two  factions  interfered  greatly  by  affect- 
ing and  influencing  the  children.  The  success 
of  one  of  the  factions  deposed  the  superinten- 
dent. In  his  place  was  substituted  a  redoubtable 
individual  Vv'ho  had  been  President  twice  and  had 
tilled  numerous  positions,  all  of  which  turned  out 
failures.  He  had  run  a  newspaper  and  been 
Mayor  of  a  wild  and  wooly  Wyoming  oil  town. 
A  shrewd  splitter  of  parties,  who  turned  up  on 
everv  occasion.  This  brilliant  educator  of  the 
youth  of  the  world's  model  example  in  Co-opera- 
tion wanted  to  know  "What  the  new  education 
was?"  Being  a  shrewd  politician  he  knew  thai 
order  and  discipline  were  not  wanted  by  the 
Ruskin  youth.  So  he  established  the  principle 
of  allowing  each  pupil  to  select  their  own  studies 
and  to  take,  or  not  take  them,  as  they  pleased. 

His  career  as  an  educator  was  brief.  Finding 
that  he  had  to  discipline  some  of  the  intractable 
pupils,  collision  with  parents  was  the  result,  and 
through  direct  process  he  would  soon  become  the 
most  unpopular  man  in  Ruskin. 

So  he  cutely  slid  out  of  the  job  into  another. 
The  anarchistic  method  he  established  in  the 
schools  could  never  be  corrected  again,  and  to- 
day some  of  the  pupils  bring  novels  and  red-hot 
stuff'  to  read  in  the  school  room.  Tliey  do  not 
studv  at  all,  do  not  recite,  and  never  intend  to. 


EDUCATION  93 

The  teachers  have  quit  wearing  their  soul  cases 
out  and  let  thcni  come  and  go  unnoticed. 

A  party  of  half  grown  boys  that  I  see  from  my 
window  are  figiiting  in  fun  with  bags.  It  is  a 
rough  amusement  and  they  are  covered  with  dust 
and  dirt  from  the  bags.  Here  we  have  force  ex- 
pended by  these  fine  }oung  fellows  that  could 
be  ap])lied  to  a  far  more  attractive  amusement, 
that  of  building  a  city.  These  boys  are  growing 
up  without  education.  Presently  they  will  shally 
off  over  the  farm,  or  to  the  woods,  to  idle  the  rest 
of  the  day  away  and  get  into  some  evil  or  other. 
Under  these  conditions  they  will  eventually  be- 
come a  pack  of  hounds,  perhaps  villains.  Being- 
hounds  they  have  to  be  villains  to  live.  For  they 
cannot  live  honestly  without  being  trained  in 
some  occupation  and  in  morals. 

These  unfortunate  boys  have  been  brought 
on  the  planet  by  their  ignorant  parents.  These 
parents  are  the  only  obstacles  in  the  way  of  the 
noble  boys  becoming  gentlemen.  With  them  in 
the  way  it  is  impossible  to  get  a  shanty  built  to 
educate  the  boys  in.  In  their  opinion  the  girls 
don't  count  for  anything.  Under  Co-operation, 
the  ignorant  parents  have  all  to  say  about  a 
shanty  for  teaching  the  children  something  use- 
ful and  civilized.  That  is  the  reason  we  do  not 
get  it.  Individually  the  shanty  could  have  been 
built  long  ago,  with  one  hand.  Under  the  col- 
lectivity there  are  too  many  ignorant  opinions  to 
get  six  boards  towards  it  in  sixty  years.  Sixty 
years  are  mentioned  for  modesty's  sake  only,  and 
not  to  impress  the  public  with  the  idea  that  wc 


94  '-AST     fJAYS     f)K     l<i;SKIN 

cxa^j^cratc.  Privately  we  know  that  sixty  eter- 
nities would  not  accomplish  the  first  movement 
towarrls  it;  hut  woiilfj  nr^l  like  to  anncjunce  it 
|;uhli(:ly. 

ihe  reason  why  we  do  not  wish  to  announce 
it  publicly  is  that  there  are  a  ^reat  many  people 
whose  sweet  souls  arc  batherl  in  the  same  Utopian 
flrcam  that  we  were  swimming  in  some  years  aj:jo, 
and  it  woulfl  be  uncharitable  to  awaken  them  to 
tJK-  ni'l.-  facts  connected  with  the  menagerie  of 
liuiiiaii  beinj^s,  who  are  represented  in  their 
dreams  with  six-foot  halos,  ^'old  anrl  purple 
tipped  win^s.  But  it  would  never  do  to  come 
out  with  the  raw  truth  tf>  pr^lite  c'-rs,  and  would 
be  stark  cruelty  to  disturb  the  d-eamcrs  with  the 
heavenly  smile  u|)on  their  faces. 

In  looking  around  upon  the  wfjrld  of  peojjlc 
.iiid  sludyinj^  matters  and  tliinj^s  we  notice  that 
indivifltials  are  created  with  special  abilities. 
I  licy  know  how  to  handle  what  they  were  created 
for.  'Ilic  fact  that  they  are  bui]t  that  way  natural- 
ly, and  know  how,  is  the  best  reason  in  the  world 
that  they  should  be  let  alone  to  hanrlle  the  job. 
The  collectivity  cannot  tell  them  how,  because 
tlicy  dr^n't  know  liou.  They  were  not  created 
that  way. 

Ivlurators  are  born,  not  made.  Tluy  can  be 
ir;iiiu-d.  The  crowd  cannot  instruct,  or  run  the 
educator.  The  crowd  can  wreck  him  ;  and  the 
more  ij^noranf  the  crowd  is,  the  .sooner  he  is 
\vrc'l:('l.  If  the  crovvd  is  densely  '\^nnriii.  ,  liko 
Rnslsiii,  lie  cannot  bej^in.  Cannfjt  start.  .All 
prcparat ions  fall  lo  j>ic(n-s,  rot,  (lcca\'  betorc  put 


r,j)(jrATif)N  95 

to  use.  Like  the  Irifjiu,  spinnin;^  machinery,  UxAs, 
potters'  wheel  aiul  thinj^'s  we  have  managed  to 
j^et  together  to  see  if  we  ccAiIrl  not  coax,  or  force 
,-m  infhistrial  schr^ol  into  cxistcmce  in  Ruskiii.  Ii 
was  all  oi  n<j  use,  the  arlaniantine  wall  of  ignor- 
ance was  too  solifl,     Inipenetrahh-. 

That's  why  the  hoys  are  fighting  with  haj^s. 
Tliey  coiilfl  he  nialcinj^  the  most  heaiitifui  things 
in  science  or  arts.  Would  be  haj^py  (loinp(  it.  No 
rlay  would  he  lon^  ^noii^h.  Entirely  absorb*  d  in 
the  pleasure  of  work.  I  know,  because  it  has 
been  triefl.  is  in  full  force  in  luinjpe  and  lar^'cly 
in  sf>me  parts  of  the  United  States.  1  have 
luflied  clo.S"ly  "V  /icole  Centrale  de  f'aris"  anrl 
elsewhere  as'  United  States  Conmiissioner, 
and  know  what  f  am  talkinj;^  about.  The  Eastern 
rities  and  srjme  of  the  Western,  also,  ar<!  Ikkjui- 
m^  with  teaching  sloyrj.  That  will  save  the  na- 
tion f|uicker  than  the  ravines  of  writers  for  I  he 
"(Jomin^  Matir;n." 

'file  f^Wh  havt;  no  chaii' '•  in  l^n-.kin,  either. 
.Vot  a  ray  of  hope.  Co-operation  does  nothinj.( 
f(jr  them.  What  they  acquire  comes  either  from 
their  own  efforts  or  from  indivduals.  '['he  ab- 
sence of  all  interc-st  in  their  lives,  rlrives  them  to 
loun^jin^  around  with  beaux.  Their  minrls  be- 
'ome  centered  on  tlie  physical  anrj  external ;  not 
absr^rberl  in  the  useful  anrl  beautiful  arts.  They, 
too,  are  (.(oinj?  to  the  do^s.  They  could  be:  bitau- 
tifyinj.^  the  city  that  the  Ijoys  could  build. 

r. )  the  thinj:(  ^oes  oti  with  a  dreary  hope  for 
the  millcrniiinn.  Another  j.(<neratir)n,  A  wr>rld  of 
per)pl(!  will  snjjplant  tli'-  present  world,  no  better, 


90  LAST     DAYS     OF     RUSKIN 

perhaps  worse.  Ability — less  people  not  trained 
in  anything.  Ruskin  cannot  get  a  shanty  up  to 
train  them  on  an  income  of  $50,000  a  year.  All 
spent  on  tom  foolery. 

These  children  of  Ruskin,  trained  in  industrial 
arts,  could  easily  produce  in  skilled  work  $100  a 
day.  This,  under  good  management,  would  as- 
sure highly  civilized  improvements,  current  com- 
fort and  enjoyment. 

Now,  then,  taking  this  lesson  in  connection 
with  the  ignorant  management  that  has  brought 
everything  to  ruin,  what  does  it  show?  Is  not  the 
lesson  as  clear,  if  not  clearer  than  the  noon-day 
sun  ?  Does  it  not  say  that  you  cannot  organize, 
or  conduct  a  colony  with  ignorance?  That  the 
only  thing  ignorance  can  do  is  to  balk  every  ave- 
nue of  progress  or  destroy  what  others  create, 
like  Ruskin.  The  question  is  plain.  Have  noth- 
ing to  do  with  ignorance. 

I  have  just  been  to  visit  a  sick  woman.  She  is 
the  mother  of  three  sturdy  little  children.  An 
athlete  and  swings  the  clubs  beautifully  with  her 
gymnast  husband,  who  often  gives  exhibitions  on 
our  stage.  She  has  been  under  the  care  of  our 
ancient  specimen  of  a  doctor,  of  the  old  orthodox 
school  of  medicine.  The  kind  that  give  chemicals 
to  put  into  the  stomach.  A  quart  for  a  horse  and 
a  pint  for  a  man  kind  of  doctor.  "Now.  take  a 
teaspoonful  of  this  every  hour;  don't  forget  to 
shake  up  the  bottle  well,  and  if  this  don't  help 
you,  I'll  give  you  something  that  will,"  sort  of  a 
doctor.  Well,  the  line  young  woman  is  going  all 
to  pieces.     Between  the  disease  and  the  doctor 


EDUCATION  97 

there  is  going  to  be  a  wrecked  life,  and  perhaps 
a  lot  of  orphan  children,  and  so  it  happened.  It's 
of  no  use  saying,  "that's  a  pity  ;"  the  same  thing 
-is  going  on  everywhere  in  the  world.  People  are 
(lying  by  inches  from  troubles  that  could  be  easily 
ciH-eti.  Indeed,  they  would  not  have  had  the 
troubles  had  they  known  anything  in  the  shape  of 
common  sense.  They  do  not  and  won't  listen 
to  it.  So  we  have  to  stand  off  and  see  them  rot 
out  and  die  by  inches.  Leave  orphan  children 
to  grow  up  in  neglect,  jierhaps  in  crime.  All  be- 
cause of  ignorance. 

Returning  from  visiting  the  sick  woman,  I  met 
a  sweet  young  girl,  one  of  my  best  pupils  in 
])ainting.  She  was  also  a  good  violinist,  well 
trained  by  a  talented  young  member  of  Ruskin. 
With  open,  honest  face,  beaming  with  smiles,  she 
ran  to  meet  me.  "Oh,  professor,  have  you  met 
the  new  people  just  in  on  the  mail  wagon  ?"'  "No. 
What  kind  of  people  are  they?"  "Oh!  nice,  re- 
fined people,  too  nice  for  this  place."  Even  the 
child  had  the  class  consciousness. 

Probably  the  most  dangerous  menace  to  Rus- 
kin is  from  the  laxity  of  home  training  of  the 
youth.  The  class  of  people  who  compose  the 
societv  of  Ruskin,  and  most  likely  all  other  col- 
onies of  people  under  the  same  conditions,  are 
those  who  have  no  conception  of  the  value  and 
importance  of  this  vital  subject.  With  but  very 
few  exceptions  these  people  are  from  low,  indus- 
trial districts,  or  farms  remote  from  the  pro- 
]:)rieties  of  cultured  society.  The  guards  that  are 
especially  thrown  around  young  females  by  the 


98  LAST     DAYS     Ol"     RUSKIN 

well-trained  and  prudent  are  utterly  ignored  by 
the  ignorant  and  careless. 

If  their  children  are  clotlied.  fed  and  housed, 
and  sent  to  school  to  learn  the  three  R's,  they 
feel  as  though  their  whole  duty  is  performed. 
This  constitutes  the  sum  total  of  their  ideas  of 
raising  children.  The  laws  of  propriety  as  re- 
gards their  hours,  their  associates,  their  amuse- 
ments, or  their  spiritual  development  are  a  dead 
letter,  if  they  have  ever  been  considered  at  all. 

The  consequence  of  these  defects  in  the  par- 
ents' education  is  that  the  laxity  in  training  of  the 
children  when  young,  grows  with  their  develop- 
ment, and  by  the  time  maturity  arrives,  they  are 
beyond  control,  and  fall  into  sensuous  crimes 
through  obstinacy  and  inexperience. 

Too  late  the  parent  sees  the  fault  and  rushes 
blindly  to  oppose  the  result  of  their  own  crime, 
but  all  to  no  purpose ;  and  another  generation  of 
the  vicious  is  launched  upon  the  world. 

The  tendency  to  publicity  and  indelicacy  in 
both  male  and  female  conduct,  subjects  the 
females  to  the  suspicion  of  being  public  women. 
Frequently  strangers  have  expressed  this  sus- 
picion of  Ruskin  ladies,  particularly  of  the  grown 
girls,  whose  unrestrained  freedom  loses  by  its 
rudeness  what  would  otherwise  be  admired. 
Neighbors  are  shocked  to  see  our  people  go  in 
bathing.  Men  and  boys  are  as  nearly  naked  in 
tights  as  thev  can  be.  Young  females  are  famil- 
iarized with  nakedness  and  indelicac}-.  This 
shows  itself  in  loud,  boisterous  and  forceful  con- 
versation and  in  some  cases  a  certain  shameless- 


EDUCATION  99 

ucss  of  conduct,  which  had  hctltr  not  be  en- 
larged upon. 

To  this  painful  picture  of  our  ideal  Ivuskiu,  we 
are  obliged  to  add  in  this  place  the  growing  haliit 
of  swearing  among  the  young  children,  wdio  have 
become  as  proficient  as  old  hands.  The  total 
absence  of  any  training,  or  standard  of  manhood, 
or  virtue  to  the  minds  of  children  has  the  same 
effect  upon  the  youth  as  it  has  upon  the  elders. 
It  leaves  the  mind  to  drift  to  a  lazy  sensualism, 
ihat  is  content  with  the  comforts  of  its  back  and 
belly.  Razor-back  (hog)  three  times  a  day,  cloth- 
ing and  shelter,  rough  life  and  maiuiers,  no  edu- 
cation or  refinement,  with  a  constant  lowering 
towards  the  animal  plane,  until  noble  Ruskin, 
with  all  her  aims  and  ambitions,  are  leveled  to  a 
Caliban  brutishness. 

Ruskin  had  a  good,  large  library.  Well  pro- 
portioned in  light  literature,  modern  classics,  his- 
tory, science  and  even  the  occult.  Magazines 
and  papers  were  abundant  as  exchanges.  We 
had  matter  to  suit  all  shades  of  intelligence  that 
could  read.  The  whole  library  and  even  engrav- 
ings enough  to  cover  the  walls  were  generously 
contributed  by  members  and  friends.  The  ele- 
gant gifts  we  had  were  astonishing  and  it  grew 
amazingly.  It  had  been  used  in  a  poor  u^ay  until 
after  the  I'ree  Love  fight  when  an  enterprising 
lady  took  charge  and  opened  it  six  nights  in  the 
week,  noon  hour  and  Sunday  afternoons.  The 
ri'fccl  was  good,  many  came  to  look  at  the  p'\c- 
iures  and  read  the  magazines  arid  papers.  Some 
took  out  novels  and  a  few  higher  literature,  but 


lOO  LAST     DAYS     OF     RUSKIN 

the  great  mass  of  members  continued  to  sit 
around  at  nights,  smoke,  gossip  and  spit  tobacco. 
The  outlook  for  improvement  was  cheering  for 
a  while  until  the  spirit  was  knocked  out  of  the 
people  by  the  President  hob-nobbing  with  the 
injunctionists  and  joining  them  in  crippling  the 
printery  by  trading  ofif  the  book  press,  when  the 
library  flattened  out  with  the  general  discourage- 
ment aikl  became  practically  dead. 

Although  the  proposition  to  introduce  a  kin- 
dergarten into  the  barren  educational  desert  of 
old  Ruskin  in  1896  was  met  with  considerable 
opposition,  it  carried.  A  trainer  was  brought. 
Two  ladies  put  in  training.  This  brought  more 
opposition.  Xearl}-  every  woman  in  the  colony 
was  jealous  because  she  thought  the  kindergarten 
teachers  had  an  easy  job.  The  kindergarten  held 
on,  however,  through  persistence.  Assistant 
teachers  came  and  went  and  Ruskin  did  not  suc- 
ceed in  getting  a  good  one. 

These  experiences  cooled  the  ardor  of  the  col- 
ony women  to  become  kindergartners.  The 
common  idea  was  that  any  one  could  walk  in  and 
plav  with  the  children.  After  three  years  of 
struggle  the  Ruskin  women  began  to  realize  that 
there  was  something  in  the  work  that  ordinary 
mortals  could  not  achieve  without  great  labor, 
and  consequently  let  it  alone. 

The  tax  on  the  teacher  all  this  time  between 
the  foolisli  ambition  of  the  adults  and  the  chil- 
flren,  who  were  totally  deficient  in  home  train- 
ing, was  verv  great,  leaving  her  exhausted  at  the 


EDUCATION  TOT 

close  of  each  season,  recjuiring  a  sea  sliore  recu- 
peration during  tlie  summer  nionlhs. 

\\  ithout  exception  the  kindergarten  children 
were  brought  under  control.  The  parents  soon 
learned  that  the  kindergartners  would  not  hurt 
I  heir  tender  brood,  and  the  children  soon  learned 
that  there  was  no  escape  from  discipline.  So  love 
and  kindness,  mixed  with  discipline,  was  sub- 
mitted to  willingly  as  an  innexil)le  law.  against 
which  the  little  darlings  ihoroughl\-  trained  in 
self-will  by  their  loving  ni;imnias  could  make  no 
ojiposition. 

When  the  little  tots  crossed  the  threshold  to 
enter  the  kindergarten  all  was  order,  obedience, 
love  and  politeness.  Entertained  and  instructed 
with  a  change  every  twenty  minutes,  the  time 
went  rapidly  and  happily.  When  they  crossed 
the  Icindergarten  threshold  to  go  to  their  own 
disorganized  homes,  as  marked  a  spirit  took  pos- 
session of  them.  Kindergarten  manners  were 
forgotten  and  the  spirit  of  contention  and  strife 
su])i)lanted  the  generous  and  loving  disposition 
used  in  the  kindergarten. 

The  children  under  these  circumstances  were 
like  two  different  beings,  one  characterized  by 
ihe  saintly  aura  of  the  kindergarten,  and  the 
other  characterized  by  the  very  spirit  of  hatred 
and  strife.  The  first  was  from  the  spirit  of  the 
refined,  educated  teacher.  The  second  was  from 
the  knock-down  and  drag-out,  or  don't-care 
si)irit  of  the  ignorant  parents'  home. 

It  is  said  that  no  good  (\ec(\  is  ever  lost.  Possi- 
bly the  sweetness  of  the  kindergartner's  soul  may 


TTXMv-i.-pfTTY  OF  rA.i.ir<'OK.Nr.^ 


T02  LAST     DAY  5     OF     RUSKIN 

have  sown  some  seed,  or  made  an  impression  in 
these  crude,  little  minds  that  will  hear  fruit  some 
da}-.  At  least,  it  is  a  first  impression  preparing" 
the  way  for  a  second  and  a  third,  that  may  strike 
them  here  and  there  along  the  pathway  of  life, 
until  some  keen  thrust  of  Karmic  law  shall 
awaken  their  souls  to  the  perception  of  the  high.cr 
life.  Let  us  hope  so,  at  least.  To  all  appear- 
ances the  kindergartner's  anxious  labor  on  their 
little  natures  bore  poor  fruit  outside  of  the  sacred 
circle.  It  was  like  letting  go  a  rubber  string';  it 
went  back  to  its  original  position.  Such  is  the 
effect  of  a  lack  of  home  training,  upon  which  all 
educators  lay  so  much  stress,  as  the  supplement 
to  the  school  room.  For  the  credit  of  Ruskin 
it  should  be  stated  that  the  work  of  her  kinder- 
garten was  not  surpassed  by  the  best  training- 
schools,  if  indeed  equaled.  Msitors  were  so 
charmed  with  the  beauty  of  the  work  of  the  little 
children,  the  interest  and  spirit  of  love  and  kind- 
ness which  pervaded  that  sacred  abode  that  even 
strong  men  often  became  overcome  with  sym- 
pathy and  emotion  and  wept  tears. 

During  the  change  to  new  Ruskin  tlie  kinder- 
garten was  sadly  interrupted  for  months.  Hous- 
ing the  people  took  every  place,  even  the  school 
house.  The  teacher  became  desperate  and  ap- 
pealed strongly  to  the  officials  of  the  new  faction 
who  were  in  the  Ruskin  saddle.  "Our  .Shepherd" 
was  \^ice  President  and  opposed  the  kindergar- 
ten. Education  would  do  later  on.  The  children 
could  wait.  (  He  had  two  fine,  grown  daughters 
who  had   waited  on   a   remote    \\'estern     shee]) 


EDUCATION  TO3 

ranch.  They  were  in  bad  educational  shape.; 
The  teacher  fought  hard  for  the  children,  and 
the  President,  who  was  a  bachelor,  said  finally : 
"You  shall  hof  dot  schule  house."  There  was 
great  joy  among  the  mothers  whose  little  tots 
would  by  this  means  be  kept  from  drowning  in 
the  creek,  where  our  poor  President  later  on  lost 
his  life. 

A  woman's  meeting  w^as  held  to  consider  the 
employment  of  children  during  vacation.  The 
meeting  passed  off  comfortably  until  it  came 
to  the  question  of  whether  the  children  would 
work  or  not.  And  what  to  do  in  case  they  re- 
fused. It  was  proposed  that  their  maintenance 
be  taken  off.  This  raised  a  storm  among  the 
mothers  who  had  the  largest  and  worst  families. 
I'hese  held  forcefull}'  to  the  plan  of  letting  the 
children  do  as  they  pleased  in  the  matter — to 
work  if  they  wanted  to  or  not.  They  would  not 
listen  for  a  moment  to  the  maintenance  being 
stopped  for  dereliction  of  duty,  and  these  being 
the  noisest  and  most  demonstrative,  carried  the 
day. 

It  would  be  unreasonable  to  expect  a  hetero- 
geneous lot  of  people,  such  as  we  have  in  Ruskin, 
to  understand  or  appreciate  the  wonderful  works 
of  genius  in  literature,  the  useful  or  fine  arts 
that  have  been  done,  are  being  done,  or  that  are 
among  the  unsolved  or  unexecuted  problems  to 
be  done.  There  is  one  thing  that  might  be  rea- 
sonably looked  for  in  Ruskin,  where  the  strain 
and  anxiety  of  the  daily  competitive  struggle  is 
removed,  and  that  is  a  calm,  quiet  disposition. 


104  LAST     DAYS     OF     RUSKIN 

favorable  to  the  appreciation  and  reception  of 
knowledge. 

Sociologists  of  the  ideal  type  would  be  sure  to 
reason  that  way.  I  have  not  seen  one  who  was 
an  exception  to  that  rule.  We  find  that  blessed 
expectations  along  this  line  are  not  realized.  In 
spite  of  every  effort  that  has  been  conceived  or 
put  into  execution  so  far,  the  same  stone  wall  of 
ignorant  prejudice  stands  as  a  barrier  in  the  way 
to  prevent  the  first  educational  steps  towards  the 
ideal  social  state. 

It  cannot  be  that  educators  are  mistaken  about 
the  means  or  the  method,  because  these  work 
wherever  they  can  be  applied.  It  must  be  the 
condition  of  the  kind  of  people  whom  we  find  en- 
gaged in  socialistic  colonial  enterprises,  are  of 
too  low  a  standard  mentally  to  conceive  the  dig- 
nity and  importance  of  organizing  a  society  prop- 
erly, or  the  qualities  to  be  achieved. 


CHAI'TJlR  \'11. 

ANARCHY    AND    FREIi    LOMl. 

riic  •'Coming  Xation"  newspaper  was  the 
foundation  of  Ruskin,  The  genius  of  Wayland 
created  it  at  Greensburg,  IncHana,  cultivated  it  to 
fruition,  transferred  it  to  Tennessee  City  as  the 
base  and  support  of  the  Ruskin  Colony,  and  in 
eleven  months'  time  he  was  driven  out  of  the  en- 
terprise and  the  paper,  printing  plant,  and  book 
business,  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  charter  mem- 
bers, what  we  now  call  Injunctionists.  excepting 
only  three  who  are  wreckers. 

( )ur  editor,  who  had  been  with  Wayland  at 
Greensburg,  and  had  had  a  dissension  there  and 
an  unsuccessful  suit  to  obtain  a  share  of  the  prop- 
ert\'  of  the  "Coming  Nation,"  became  the  suc- 
cessor of  Wayland.  From  the  day  Wayland  left, 
the  circulation  of  the  paper  steadily  declined.  The 
hcavv  and  pompous  articles  fell  like  a  funeral 
pall  upon  the  readers  and  their  solemnity  were  its 
burial  service. 

The  paper  was  destined  to  a  nomadic  exist- 
ence ;  less  than  a  year  afterwards  saw  it  trans- 
ferred to  Cave  ?*Iills.  now  Xew  Ruskin.  There, 
in  a  grand  building  appropriately  fitted  for  the 
printing  plant,  the  "'Coming  Nation"  and  its 
editor  were  installed.  These  advantages  brought 
no  improvement  in  the  circulation  of  the  paper. 


T06  LAST     DAYS     OF     RUSKIN 

wliicli  cuiUimied  to  decline  for  some  mysterious 
reason,  which  no  one  could  explain. 

The  old  \Va3dand  element,  as  those  were  called 
who  came  in  with  Wayland  and  constituted  the 
charter  members,  were  solely  and  supremely  in 
charge  of  everything  about  the  colony.  The 
printing  plant  was  sacred  to  them  and  they  were 
distrii^uted  in  various  positions  wherever  it  was 
most  comfortable.  Politics  seemed  to  be  the  prin- 
cipal industrial  occupation  in  and  about  the  pur- 
lieus of  the  printing  establishment.  One  of  them 
was  planted  in  the  office,  with  the  sole  charge  of 
the  business  of  the  paper  and  books.  This  he 
controlled  exclusively,  with  none  to  examine, 
look  into,  or  question,  until  the  beginning  of 
1899,  five  long  years.  It  was  thought  that  the 
miracle  of  handling  this  mysterious  position  could 
he  performed  by  no  other  mortal  yet  created. 
Nevertheless,  his  successor,  who  was  a  method- 
ical man,  found  it  a  nest  of  confusion,  without 
beginning  or  end. 

Another  year  passed  in  the  peaceful  shades  be- 
side the  limpid  waters  of  Yellow  creek.  Could 
\\i  have  pierced  the  womb  of  time  and  have  seen 
what  was  in  store  for  us,  it  would  have  appalled 
the  stoutest  heart.  A  schism  broke  out.  Little 
did  we  dream  of  the  infamies  that  were  locked 
up  in  the  bosoms  of  the  worshiped  founders  of 
the  Ruskin  colony,  the  hope  of  the  world.  Truth 
is  stranger  than  fiction,  and  so  w^e  realized.  It 
woke  us  up,  and  kept  us  awake;  there  was  no 
nonsense  about  the  schism.     It  was  in  earnest  on 


ANARCHY  AND  FREE  LOVE  IO7 

both  sidos,  aiul  was  maintained  up  to  the  sticking 
point  for  over  a  year. 

In  October,  1S97,  a  quiet,  secretive  man  by 
the  name  of  Cowell,  n(,)t  a  member,  but  who  had 
come  to  Ruskin  to  work  as  a  printer  about  a  year 
before,  posted  in  our  dining-room  a  subscription 
paper  for  money  to  defend  in  the  courts  ah  anar- 
chistic and  Free  Love  newspaper,  caUed  the  "Fire 
Brand ;"  which  the  United  States  government 
had  forbidden  the  use  of  the  mails,  because  of 
immoral  articles.  A  few  of  our  people  under- 
stood the  character  of  this  suppressed  paper  and 
had  the  subscription  list  taken  down  and  returned 
to  Cowell. 

The  incident  raised  a  storm  among  the  old  ele- 
ment about  the  printery,  including  the  editor, 
who  declaimed  loudly  in  favor  of  the  "Fire 
Brand,"  and  also  hi  favor  of  the  doctrine  of  an- 
archy and  I'ree  Love.  This  surprised  the  Social- 
ists, who  never  dreamed  that  we  had  such  philos- 
ophers in  Ruskin. 

Of  course  there  was  a  division  into  two  hostile 
camps,  and  to  the  credit  of  the  Anarchists  and 
Free  Lovers  be  it  said  that  once  their  hands  were 
shown,  they  did  not  play  the  hypocrite  after- 
wards, l)nt  defended  their  doctrine  with  a  vigor 
worth}-  of  a  better  cause. 

Unfortunately  the  Anarchist  and  Free  Love 
element  comi>osed  the  f)fhcial  force  of  the  colony. 
They  were  a  majority  on  the  Board  of  Directors 
and  controlled  the  Executive  Board.  In  fact,  we 
could  count  only  six  anti-Free  Lovers  who  were 
of  the  Wayland  period. 


I08  LAST     DAYS     OF     RUSKIN 

Poor  Wayland  !  God  help  him  !  He  was  alone 
with  these  people.  His  little  boy  let  it  out  that 
pop  and  ma-am  had  an  awful  time  about  let- 
ting them  have  the  charter  stock  shares. 
Poor  Mrs.  Wayland  saw  with  the  woman's  in- 
stinct what  would  come  from  giving  that  rough, 
senseless  mob  the  whole  power  by  their  superior 
numbers,  to  sink  the  brilliant  conception  of  a  co- 
operative village,  with  all  its  possibilities  into  the 
degraded  depths  of  a  besotted  sensualism  under 
the  titles  of  Anarchy  and  Free  Love. 

We  had  the  whole  force  of  the  old  lot  against 
us  except  these  six.  I  say  six,  because  our  buyer 
was  anything  and  would  be  anything,  so  long  as 
he  could  hold  the  ofihce  of  buyer.  He  did  not  like 
the  titles  of  Anarchy  and  Free  Love,  because  he 
had  been  a  Sunday  school  superintendent  of  the 
old  orthodox  type.  But  he  would  be  willing  to 
live  under  that,  or  any  other  title,  so  long  as  he 
could  hold  on  to  the  office  of  buyer.  He  had  a 
passion  for  buying.  Would  buy  anything. 
Would  make  a  trade  for  the  sake  of  making  a 
t'  ade,  if  there  was  not  a  cent  in  it.  Indeed,  it  was 
thought  that  he  would  do  so  even  if  he  lost  a 
little.  I  know  that  he  sold  our  wheat  after  we 
•vorked  a  whole  season  to  get  it.  Figured  out  a 
profit  of  ^2y  on  the  car.  He  managed  to  get  the 
power  to  sell  it,  the  old  lot  alwa}"s  do.  The  re- 
sult was  after  it  reached  Xashville  elevator  and 
was'  cleaned,  it  brought  us  $6  profit  to  the  car. 
That  was  all  we  had  for  hauling  it  six  miles  to 
the  railroad.  So  you  can  see  where  we  came  out 
on  this  diseased  passion  to  specidate  on  the  stafif 


ANARCHY  AND  I'RICR  LONE  ICX) 

of  life,  after  we  once  got  it.  I  may  as  well  men- 
tion the  beauty  of  this  transaction ;  it  will  give  a 
clue  to  understand  some  of  the  financial  splendors 
of  the  Ruskin  Co-operative  Ignorance  Associa- 
tion, ruled  by  the  old  element  and  submitted  to  by 
the  most  densely  ignorant  set  of  j^eople  that  this 
or  any  other  planet  has  even  witnessed.  Now 
listen  to  the  brilliant  dash  of  our  great  buyer. 
The  wheat  was  sold  at  70  cents  a  bushel,  and  in 
a  few  weeks  we  started  to  buy  our  own  supply 
for  the  season  at  90  cents  and  upwards.  Was  not 
this  great  business  judgment?  Is  it  any  wonder 
Ruskin  went  to  the  demnition  bow-wows?  You 
will  hear  worse  than  that  about  our  buyer  and  the 
old  charters  who  ruled  the  great  Ruskin  hope  of 
the  ages. 

Well,  "our  bu}er"  hung  on  to  the  Anarchists 
and  Free  Lovers  a  long  time.  He  would  persist- 
ently argue  right  in  the  face  of  the  facts  (he  did 
not  care  for  facts)  that  there  was  nothing  in  it. 
That  it  was  a  harmless  little  schism  that  did  not 
mean  an\thing,  and  that  we  all  thought  alike, 
but  did  not  know  it,  and  things  were  all  right. 
Bring  along  the  whitewash  bucket  and  give  the 
whole  thing  a  coat  and  everything  will  be  lovely, 
and  I  can  hang  on  as  buyer.  He  always  watched 
the  fence  pretty  closely  and  managed  as  usual  to 
get  down  on  the  winning  side  in  time  to  save  his 
bacon. 

You  need  to  know  these  fellows.  They  figured 
in  the  great  movement  of  the  Ruskin  Co-opera- 
tive  Association,  and  that  was  a  famcms  institu- 
tion.    It  made  a  big  stir  in  the  world,  that  was 


no  LAST     DAYS     OF     RUSKIN 

seriously  considered  by  people,  whose  attention 
and  concern  would  be  a  compliment  to  any  move- 
ment. We  might  as  well  take  a  cursory  glance 
at  these  fellows,  get  a  fair  idea  of  them.  But  not 
spend  too  much  time  on  them ;  the  general  story 
of  the  association,  the  lesson  and  moral  we  can 
draw  from  it  is  the  all  important  thing.  Besides 
we  must  not  be  personal.  It  would  not  be  polite. 
We  must  talk  about  things  in  "away  off"  style. 
Not  come  at  it  straight  and  rough  as  they  do 
with  criminals  in  the  court  room.  So  we  will  be 
as  "Miss  Nancy"  over  this  story  of  Ruskin  as 
possible. 

The  Anarchists  and  Free  Lovers  composed  the 
official  force  of  the  colony.  Whatever  measures 
we  were  obliged  to  adopt  in  opposition  to  the 
theories  of  Anarchism  and  Free  Love,  that  had 
sprung  upon  us  so  unexpectedly,  through  the 
Cowell  incident,  we  were  obliged  to  take  through 
them,  the  very  friends  of  the  crimes.  The  only 
way  to  do  was  to  beard  the  lion  in  his  den,  and 
that  is  exactly  what  we  did  do.  It  took  a  hard 
fight  and  lots  of  awful  roars  and  growls,  but  he 
went  into  the  corner  at  bay  at  last. 

The  first  thing  we  did — I  say  we,  a  poor  little 
corporal's  guard  at  first,  and  the  corporal's  guard 
were  very  weak-kneed  and  as  timid  as  rabbits  for 
a  while — bracing  up  gradually  as  they  saw  one 
man  stand  out  and  fight  these  infamous,  disgust- 
ing theories,  that  were  committing  all  of  us  be- 
for  the  world,  through  the  pro])aganda  that  was 
l)eing  made  from  Ruskin,  in  which  our  paper  was 
taking  a  guarded  part.    They  stiffened  up,  how- 


ANARCHY  AXn  TRICE   L()\K  III 

ever,  and  as  one  vigorous  blow  after  another  was 
struck  at  the  Anarchists  and  Free  Lovers  the 
great  passive,  do-nothing  mob  liegan  to  be  inter- 
ested, and  close  up  somewhat  to  the  back  of  the 
patriot  Socialists.  The  slothful  thinking,  indif- 
ferent people  even  during  the  Free  Love  and  An- 
archy excitement  and  schism,  did  not  realize  the 
facts  and  dangers ;  at  any  moment  they  were 
likely  to  desert  the  brave  patriots  who  stood  in 
front  of  the  fight.  It  was  only  by  the  finest 
strategy  that  the  fight  was  conducted  to  the  dis- 
advantage of  the  Anarchists.  They  were  all- 
powerful  m  prestige  and  position,  it  has  been 
the  same  with  every  reform  and  improvement 
brought  about.  Many  of  the  great  wiseacres  to- 
da}-  who  brag  al:)Out  what  they  did  w^cre  the  most 
arrant  cowards  at  the  time  of  the  conflict.  They 
stood  ofif  and  even  objected  to  the  fuss  and  also 
signed  a  petition  to  suppress  it.  When  success 
was  certain  they  joined  in  the  hurrah. 

The  first  thing  we  did,  I  say,  was  to  get  out  a 
petition  to  lay  before  the  Board  of  Directors,  de- 
claring for  Socialism  and  against  Anarchy. 

The  editor  was  running  in  the  "Coming  Na- 
tion" a  good  deal  of  matter  of  an  anarchistic 
character.  Some  of  us  did  not  like  it,  but  the 
great  mass  of  the  people  did  not  know  whether  it 
was  right  or  not.  The  paper  came  out  each  week 
and  ronndly  abused  the  monopolists  and  ]joli- 
ticians  and  also  stepped  a  good  deal  out  of  its 
way  to  abuse  the  clergy.  The  peoi)l('  read  it. 
Tra-la-la.  Words,  words,  words,  any  kind  of 
words,  with  hate  and  fight  in  them,  stirred  the 


112  LAST     DAYS     OF     RUSKIN 

sluggish  brain  of  ignorance,  and  it  was  all  right. 

However,  a  number  of  our  readers  did  not  like 
the  anarchistic  style  that  our  paper  was  being 
drifted  into,  and  they  told  us  so.  So  we  got  out 
the  petition  to  publicly  declare  for  Socialism,  and 
with  a  hard  struggle  managed  to  get  26  names  on 
it.  that  was  25  per  cent  of  the  members  at  that 
time.  It  was  met  with  fierce  opposition  in  the 
Board  of  Directors,  of  course,  and  "our  Shep- 
herd," who  was  a  sympathizer  moved  to  table  the 
petition.  Ye  gods !  It  was  tabled,  and  stays 
tabled  until  this  day,  and  will  forever  now. 

It's  a  fact,  the  people's  petition  was  tabled  in 
Ruskin.  Just  pay  attention  to  this.  Observe  the 
passivity  of  the  people.  They  let  it  go.  They 
did.  Let  it  go !  There  was  no  revolution,  no  re- 
bellion, no  blood  shed  over  the  right  of  petition, 
magna  charta  and  all  that ;  nothing  of  the  kind. 
They  just  sat  down  and  took  it  as  a  spaniel  dog 
would  take  a  kick  and  crawl  at  the  feet  of  the 
kicker.  Outside  in  competition  you  might  look 
for  rebellion  and  a  big  noise  throughout  the 
land  if  Congress  treated  a  people's  petition  in 
that  style;  but  in  Ruskin,  noble  Ruskin, 
R-R-R-R-uskin,  the  model  government  of  the 
\vorld,  where  everything  was  so  far  ahead  of 
common  affairs  that  they  were  clean  out  of  sight 
in  the  beautiful  clouds ;  everything  was  at  peace, 
sublime  peace,  dead,  maggoty  peace,  where  the 
petition  of  the  people  was  tabled  by  our  Shep- 


ANARCHY  AXn   l-RF-K  LOVE  T  F^ 

herd'  and  llic  Anarcliisis  and  I-"rcc  l.ovcrs  in 
-real  K-K-K-R-R-uskin  ! 

Tabling-  the  petition  was  an  iinporlant  part  of 
the  prog-ram.  Everything  has  its  uses.  The 
fortress  of  .Anarchy  and  Free  Love  was  attacked 
again.  The  Sociahsts  after  this  first  knock-out 
came  U])  smihng.  They  came  up  with  another  pe- 
tition for  a  referendum  vote,  with  the  question, 
"Uo  you,  or  does  your  wife,  lieheve  in  Anarch \- 
or  I'Vee  Love?"  This  we  wanted  on  the  appHca- 
tion  blank  for  new  members.  We  were  bound  to 
find  out  if  we  could  the  sentiments  of  new  appli- 
cants for  membership  on  the  Anarchy  and  Free 
Love  question.  We  suspected  also  that  Co  well 
and  the  old  members  were  working  secretly  t(i 
get  the  colony  filled  up  with  that  kind  of  people. 

At  the  same  time  was  put  in  a  counter  petition 
opposing  the  introduction  of  this  question  on  the 
application  blank,  and  wanting  to  leave  the  blank 
as  it  was.  This  whitewashing-  petition  was  got- 
ten up  by  our  buyer  and  the  editor  and  four  of 
the  old  cha-fter  members  canvassed  the  colony 
two  days  for  signatures.    It  was  equal  to  any  po- 

♦Eightoon  nioiuhs  aftorwanls.  in  a  LyciMim  spoocli,  •■our 
slupht'id"  i-x pressed  a  rojjrct  that  comlitions  in  linslcin  cuni- 
pellod  a  ni.m  to  a<-t  tlip  part  of  the  liypocritc.  At  tUP  trial 
and  oxjiiilsion  of  one  of  the  in.junctionists  on  Oct.  I'l,  IS'iS, 
'•our  sheplierd"  was  cbairnian.  H(>  announci'd  that  one  min- 
ute would  bo  ix'wcn  each  nienilier  to  speak.  On  ]iinn-^  clial- 
lenucd  for  his  authority,  he  replied.  "Tliat  was  his  ruliuj,' 
and  the  objector's  time  was  up."  .-Vn  appeal  was  taken  .ind 
tlie  d»-si)o'tic  chairman  was  s-.istaiued.  Some  explained 
afterwards  that  the  chairman  was  wron^'.  but  they  were 
afraid  of  a  wi-:;nj.'le  among  themstdves.  I'lie  chairman  in- 
formed the  writer  after  the  meeting  that,  if  there  had  been 
any  disorder  he  would  have  <'losed  the  meeting  until  to-mor- 
row uight  and  brought  a  pcdiceman  to  keep  onler.  So  you 
see  the  mob  will  do  anything  for  either  prejudice  or  pottage. 


114  l-^^^T     DAYS     OF     RUSKIN 

litical  liustiiigs  ever  seen  in  the  competitive 
world.  They  were  desperate,  and  bound  to  keep 
that  question  off  the  application  blank.  On  the 
vote  they  came  within  one  of  doing  it,  and  fought 
us  tooth  and  nail,  but  we  made  it  in  spite  of  every 
opposition,  and  it  is  on  the  blank  to-day. 

To  fortify  and  augment  the  question  before  the 
people  a  communication  was  laid  before  the 
Board  of  Directors.  This  had  to  be  read  and 
something  done  with  it.  "Our  Shepherd"  came 
again  to  the  rescue  of  the  Anarchists  and  Free 
Lovers  and  tabled  it.  He  did,  indeed.  But  then 
ail  you  folks  who  understand  business  and  know 
a  thing  or  two,  I'll  just  give  you  the  wink.  We 
played  with  these  devils  and  made  them  hang 
themselves.  Although  it  is  wonderful  how  our 
shepherd  held  on  like  our  buyer  to  the  last, 

The  principal  thing  in  this  world  in  any  move- 
ment is  to  get  an  idea  out  before  the  people ;  once 
you  get  it  out,  you  need  no  longer  worry  your- 
self about  it.  Nothing  on  earth  can  stop  an  idea 
once  it  gets  out.  You  might  as  well  try  to  stop 
the  sea.  It  simply  cannot  be  done.  You  may  go  to 
bed  and  rest,  the  idea  will  take  care  of  itself, 
never  fear.  So  it  was  with  the  fight  with  the 
Anarchist  and  Free  Love  schism ;  it  brought  for- 
ward the  whole  subject,  for  discussion  and  an- 
alysis, woke  up  and  educated  the  people  along 
that  line  who  were  in  a  dead,  apathetic  and  im- 
movable condition  before. 

But  I  must  not  forget  to  give  you  the  com- 
munication, because  it  will  help  you  to  under- 
stand the  whole  situation  at  that  point  of  its  his- 


ANARCrii'  AXn   l"RKE   I.()\'R  II5 

li»r\.  The  hislor\'  widened  and  brcjut^lil  sad  re- 
sults afterwards;  luil  let  us  read  the  couiuuiuica- 
tiun  : 

To  the  Lioard  of  Directors  of  the  Kuskiu  Co-oj)- 
erative  Association : 

LJentlemen — In  all  Socialistic  movements  the 
great  obstacle  has  been  Anarchy.  In  every  na- 
tional, international  and  local  organization  of 
Socialists,  they  have  been  forced  to  stamp  out 
Anarchy  for  their  preservation. 

The  two  systems  are  diametrically  opposite. 
Socialism  claims  evolution  and  j^erfcction  through 
the  law^ 

Anarchy  claims  its  perfection  in  the  al)rogation 
of  all  law. 

Socialism  has  alwaws  existed  as  a  perfected 
philosophy,  and  in  Aristotle's  economics  we  find 
the  data  now  accepted  in  accordance  with  the  best 
thought. 

All  tribes  and  associations  called  governments 
and  nations  have  always  had  their  base  in  Social- 
ism. It  is  as  old  as  time  and  the  fundamental 
l)rinciple  of  every  collective  efifort  of  man. 

There  is  but  one  obstacle  to  its  full  practice, 
viz. : 

The  Competitive  system. 

That  we  have  come  here  to  avoid. 

To  practice  Socialism  in  its  integral  form. 

The  failure  of  Anarchists  to  control  Socialism 
has  driven  its  supporters  to  secret  methods.  In- 
troducing themselves  under  various  guises  into 
Socialistic  institutions,  the}'  privately"  sow     the 


Il6  LAST     DAYS     OF     RUSKIN 

seed  of  their  doctrine  in  ihc  hope  of  breaking  up 
SociaHstic  efforts. 

This  experience  we  have  had  in  Ruskin.  The 
patient,  dehberate  Cowell  has  effectively  done  his 
work ;  until  within  one  year  all  propaganda  of 
this  association,  including  the  "Coming  Nation," 
is  largelv  in  the  hands  of  declared  Anarchists, 
who  boldly  avow  the  doctrine  of  Anarchy  and 
Free  Love,  the  doctrine  of  Voluntary  Co-opera- 
tion in  opposition  to  Socialism,  marital  purit\-  and 
Integral  Co-operation. 

This  petition  opposing  the  question  in  refer- 
ence to  Anarchy  and  Free  Love  being  placed  on 
the  application  blank,  claims  that  no  attempt  has 
been  made  to  commit  the  Ruskin  Association  to 
Anarchy,  and  that  a  declaration  of  our  Socialistic 
princii)les  is  not  necessary.  We  think  dift'erently. 
The  struggle  between  Anarchy  and  Socialism  is 
on.  It  has  to  be  settled  here  as  it  has  everywhere 
else,  either  by  destruction  of  this  institution,  or 
by  stamping  out  the  enemy  of  Socialism. 

Let  us  see  if  the  claim  of  this  petition  is  true, 
"That  no  attempt  has  been  made  to  commit  the 
R.  C.  A.  to  Anarchy." 

Cowell  came  to  Ruskin  ;  quietly  disseminated 
Anarchistic  literature,  drawing  attention  to  it,  and 
finally  tried  to  force  it  on  our  book  list.  (V\'e 
all  know  that  he  is  a  writer  for  yVnarchistic  pa- 
pers.) Surreptitiously  introduced  Anarchistic 
matter  into  the  "Coming  Nation."  and  publicly 
posted  a  subscription  list  in  our  dining  hall  in  de- 
fense of  a  suppressed  Anarchist  and  Free  Love 
newspaper. 


ANARCHY  AND  FREE  LOVE  1  1/ 

The  Socialists  of  Ruskiii.  aware  of  the  silent 
campaign  of  Anarchy  in  our  midst,  decided  that 
Cowell  should  not  use  our  walls  for  its  propaga- 
tion, and  had  the  list  taken  down.  A  movement 
was  begun  against  this  assumption  by  the  Anar- 
chist Cowell  (who  was  not  even  a  member  of 
Ruskin  Colon\  ),  which  created  a  great  commo- 
tion among  the  few  members  of  the  R.  C.  A.,  w'ho 
were  Anarchists,  manifesting  itself  in  abuse  and 
insult  to  those  active  in  opposing  Anarchy.  This 
conmiotion  brought  out  the  following  acknowd- 
cdgements  on  the  part  of  the  Anarchists: 

J.  To  Lillygren's  wedding  being  made  a  legal 
marriage  in  Ruskin  "as  an  absurdity  400  years 
behind  the  age." 

This  by  two  of  ihe  Uvavd  of  Directors,  wdio 
now  sit  in  judgmenj;  on  this  matter. 

2d.  "That  married  people  have  the  right  to 
sex  relations  with  wdiom  they  choose." 

3d.  "That  a  nian  has  a  right  to  have  sex  rela- 
tions with  any  unmarried  female,  if  they  choose 
to  make  it  an  act  of  \'oluntary  Co-operation." 

This  bv  a  Director  who  sits  in  judgment  on  this 
matter. 

4th.  "That  Anarchy  is  superior  to  Socialism 
in  theory  and  practice.  That  because  it  is  not  ap- 
preciated is  because  Socialists  are  ignorant." 

5th.  "That  Anarchy  is  the  stuff  and  anything 
else  is  not  worth  talking  about." 

6th.  That  the  printing  ofifice  of  the  R.  C.  A. 
has  been  rendered  almost  entirely  Anarchistic. 

/th.  That  the  library  of  the  R.  C.  A.  possesses 
literature  of  an  Anarchistic  and  Imtc  Love  char- 


Il8  LAST     DAYS     OF     RUSKIN 

acter,  which  is  being"  in{Kistriousl\-  circulated  and 
read  by  the  old  and  young  of  both  sexes.  Litera- 
ture objectionable  to  parents,  who  have  been 
obliged  to  take  it  from  their  children. 

8th.  That  the  "Coming  Nation"  is  edited  by 
an  Anarchist,  who  has  introduced  into  its  i)ropa- 
ganda  the  theory  of  Voluntary  Co-operation  in- 
stead of  Integral  Co-operation,  as  taught  by  So- 
cialists.* 

9th.  That  the  interpretation  given  to  Volun- 
tary Co-operation  by  one  of  the  Board  of  Direc- 
tors, who  is  an  Anarchist,  is  as  follows:  "What 
is  Voluntary  Co-operation  but  Anarchy."- 

loth.  The  threat  that  if  the  cjuestion,  "Do  you 
or  does  your  wife  believe  in  Anarchy  or  Free 
Love?"  is  put  upon  the  application  blank,  the  An- 
archists will  have  the  Christians  in  Ruskin  re- 
stricted also. 

nth.  That  literature  teaching  how  to  prevent 
conception  is  issued  from  our  library  and  read 
by  young  persons. 

I2th.  That  the  "Coming  Nation''  was  surrep- 
titiously made  a  medium  of  defense  for  an  An- 
archist and  Free  Love  newspaper,  which  was 
suppressed. 

Is  this  not  an  attempt  to  commit  the  R.  C.  A. 
to  Anarchy  ?  Or  are  we  to  wait  until  the  "Com- 
ing Nation"  puts  at  its  head  what  was  declared 
last  Wednesday  night  in  this  hall,  viz.,  "Anarch\- 

*Thp  oditor  in  ji  loiifithy  spoocli  Ijcfore  tlip  Hi»iir(l  of 
Dirpf'lors  clMinifd  tli:it  I  he  ••('oiiiini;-  X.itidn"  li:iil  hrcii 
:Hl\(Pi-a(inj;  vnlunlai'.v  fo-oiioiMt  ion  foi-  scvcr.-il  nlnulll^;,  .ind 
that  it  liad  ionic  to  l)e  a  .'settlod  policy. 


AXARCllV   AM)   IKKK   I.OM'.  119 

is  the  stuff  and  anything'  else  is  not  worth  talking 
ahout ?" 

i'hc  (|ucstion  is  between  Anarchy  and  Social- 
ism. All  attempts  to  evade  this  question  arc  use- 
less. The  contentions  in  international,  national 
and  local  Socialist  organizations  with  Anarchy 
have  been  settled  by  its  complete  downfall.  Rus- 
kin  has  come  in  for  its  share  of  the  battle.  With 
us  it  is  now  Anarchy  or  Socialism.  All  the 
propaganda  forces  of  Ruskin  are  largcl\  in  the 
liands  of  Anarchists  (supinely  placed  there  by 
our  indifference),  who  are  trying  to  evade  this 
issue  by  the  claim  of  this  petition,  "That  no  overt 
act  has  yet  committed  this  association  to  An- 
archy." 

What  is  our  dut\-  to  Ruskin  and  to  Socialism 
in  this  case?  Is  it  not  to  openly  declare  ourselves 
for  Socialism  and  law?     Unquestionably  yes. 

What  is  the  common  sense  practice  in  all  insti- 
tutions when  an  enemy  is  found  hostile  to  its  in- 
terests or  principles? 

The  enemy  is  removed  at  once. 

( )ur  famous  "Coming  Nation"'  newspaper  is 
^  dited  b\  an  Anarchist.  What  is  the  duty  of  this 
association  ?  Unquestionably  to  clearly  define  and 
]>roclaim  our  position  as  Socialists.  That  we  arc 
in  every  respect  opposed  to  Anarchy. 

What  is  our  duty  to  protect  the  young  of  Rus- 
kin from  the  philosophy  of  self-will  and  sensual- 
ism, by  the  spread  of  Anarchistic  literature  from 
the  association's  library? 

Is  it  not  to  stop  it  at  once  ? 

How  can  we  evade,  gloss  over,  or  wdiitewash 


I20  LAST     DAYS     OF     RUSKIN 

tliis  issvie  by  the  claim  that  no  overt  act  has  been 
committed  ? 

It  cannot  be  done. 

We  must  decide  for  Ruskin  and  SociaUsm  or 
Anarchy  and  a  desert. 

(Signed.)  Isaac  Broome. 

Oct.  2^,  1897. 

This  communication  raised  a  storm,  and  no 
mistake.  It  was  hke  pulHng  a  mean's  nose.  The 
storm  moved  its  center  from  the  Board  of  Direc- 
tors in  session  to  the  adjournment,  when  we  had 
it  hot  and  heavy  with  the  editor  and  the  barber. 
The  author  had  to  fight  them  all.  It  was  a  circus 
for  the  rest.  But  on  this  as  on  every  other  occa- 
sion, they  came  out  a  httle  worse  than  they  went 
in. 

As  I  told  \"ou  before,  "our  Shepherd"  was 
choking  to  table  it.  He  did  say  that  it  was  a 
question  we  would  have  to  face  sooner  or  later, 
but  he  did  not  want  to  face  it  now ;  put  it  off  for 
some  other  time — anything  to  get  rid  of  it.  So 
he  tabled  it. 

The  petition  could  not  be  disposed  of  so  easily 
without  high  treason.  Four  of  them  risked  the 
treason  and  voted  to  refuse  the  referendum.  One 
refused  to  vote  to  make  a  tie.  It  was  decided  by 
the  President  in  the  affirmative. 

So  in  spite  of  the  four  voting  .Vnarchists  and 
one  not  voting,  the  petition  which  could  not 
legally  be  refused  under  the  By-Laws,  was 
granted. 

Every  effort  was  made  afterwards  to  ex[)unge 
the  minutes  of  the  Directors'  vote  to  refuse  the 


ANARCHY  AND  FKliE  LOVE  121 

rcferciuluin.  It  was  even  embodied  in  the  white- 
washing- petition.  But  the  expunging  failed  in 
both  the  directOKy  and  the  rcferenchuu.  So  the 
vote  stands  on  the  minutes  in  its  subHme,  monu- 
mental infamy  until  this  day. 

Ah !  those  were  red-hot  da}'S.  When  we  look- 
back over  the  fierce  contest  at  the  breaking  out  of 
the  Anarchy  and  Free  Love  schism,  and  the  spirit 
shown  by  these  advocates  of  sensualism,  for 
that's  exactly  what  it  means  when  you  push  their 
argument  to  its  last  analysis,  as  will  be  seen  later 
on,  when  the  curtain  is  drawn  a  little  more.  You 
could  not  describe  it;  that's  impossible.  It  never 
let  up. 

I  have  lived  in  Rome  in  the  days  of  Pio  Nino, 
^vhen  every  other  man  was  a  priest,  a  beggar  or  a 
soldier.  When  you  could  not  speak  to  a  man 
without  his  first  looking  around  to  see  if  a  spy 
was  listening  before  he  would  answer.  When 
no  man's  liberty  was  safe  for  a  moment.  When 
some  of  us  had  to  go  and  report  to  the  Consul 
every  morning,  fearing  to  be  taken  away  in  the 
night  to  Ancona  without  trial  or  notice.  1  have 
seen  religious  fanaticism  in  its  keenest  shape  and 
have  been  under  the  horses'  heels  when  the  cav- 
alry sabers  were  whizzing  over  my  head,  cutting 
down  unbelievers.  I  have  seen  the  deadly  effects 
of  secret  persecution.  But  never  have  I  wit- 
nessed such  fanatical  ferocity  as  is  possessed  by 
the  devotees  of  Anarchism.  Tt  may  be  interest- 
ing as  a  sociological  study,  but  I  would  not  care 
to  go  through  another  siege  like  that  one  again. 

After  the   Directors'  meeting  adjourned,   the 


122  LAST     DAYS     OF     RUSKIN 

Steam  went  up  to  blowing-off  point.  Attempts  to 
challenge  some  jjoints  in  the  communication  were 
met  by  an  offer  to  prove  before  an  investigating 
committee.  The  offer  was  not  accepted  for  pru- 
dential reasons.  The  editor  threatened  to  take 
the  new  members  and  beat  us  on  the  vote.  He 
also  threatened  to  give  a  series  of  lectures  this 
winter  on  the  subject  of  Anarchy  and  Free  Love, 
lie  also  threatened  to  black-ball  applications  for 
membership  of  orthodox  Christians,  and  subse- 
([ucntly  he,  with  two  others,  who  were  the  exam- 
ining committee,  wrote  "not  recommended"  on 
such  applications. 

We  then  tried  to  abolish  the  Examining  Com- 
mittee, but  failed  to  get  votes  enough. 

It  may  be  mentioned  here  that  previous  to  the 
adoption  of  the  new  By-Law^s  last  winter,  an 
effort  was  made  to  have  the  question,  "Define 
Anarchy,"'  placed  upon  the  application  blank. 
This,  for  some  mysterious  reason,  was  opposed 
1»\-  the  old  element,  and  after  quite  a  struggle,  the 
((uestion,  "Define  Competition,"  was  substituted 
in  its  stead.  A  large  portion  of  the  members  did 
not  see  the  motive  of  the  opposition  to  this  ques- 
tion on  the  blank,  unlil  the  Cowell  incident  re- 
\ealed  the  secret. 

We  do  not  like  to  profane  these  pages  further 
llian  necessary.  So  much  has  been  already  said 
in  language  that  those  who  do  not  realize  the 
depth  of  infamy  all  through  this  old  element 
would  suppose  was  exaggerated.  We  who  have 
drunk  the  bitter  cup  to  its  dregs,  we  who  share 
tlie  burning  shame  and  mortification  of  the  en- 


AXAKCIIN    AND    IKi;i-:    1-<I\  I'-  1  ^.^ 

tirelv  unnccossary  downfall  of  Ruskiii.  can  find 
no  langnage  fit  to  express  onr  injnred  devotion  to 
the  cause  of  Co-operative  Socialism. 

We  must  exhibit  some  of  the  literature  pro- 
fusel}-  ] lasted  upon  the  walls  of  the  mailing-room 
and  composing-room,  which  our  barber  claimed 
\vas  entirely  put  up  by  him.  The  following  sam- 
I'le  was  mentioned  Ijy  him  as  being  entirely  unob- 
jectionable : 

'Sakiimy:  another  woman's  \i]-:w. 
"I  am  a  mother  and  a  wife,  and  as  such  desire 
to  say  a  word  in  answer  to  one  of  your  corre- 
si)ondcnts  some  time  ago,  who  wanted  to  know 
if  there  were  any  women  who  believed  in  or  prac- 
ticed variety  in  their  sex  relations.  I  want  to  say 
Ves ;  most  em])hatically.  My  husband  and  my- 
self are  in  ])ericct  harmony  on  this  point ;  and  can 
see  no  more  harm  in  having  an  exchange  of  part- 
ners in  the  sex  relation  than  in  having  variety  in 
food,  clothing,  or  friends.  Who  could  be  happ\- 
in  this  world  if  only  permitted  to  enjoy  the  com- 
])anionship  of  one  indiivdual?  Who  loves  flow- 
ers ?  Does  any  one  love  but  one  kind  of  flowers  ? 
Is  any  one  healthy  who  is  confined  to  a  single 
article  of  food  ?  fs  there  one  single  thing  in  this 
life,  that  is  enjoyed  without  variety  outside  of  the 
sex  relation?  If  there  is,  name  it.  I  know  of 
nothing.  If  this  be  so,  then  who  can  give  a  sensi- 
ble reason  whv  the  sex  relation  .should  be  con- 
fined without  variety  ?     *     *     * 

Wrr.DA  Rloomfiri.d, 

Nebraska.'' 


124  LAST     DAYS     OF     RUSKIN 

This  specimen  of  the  transcendentalistic  Htera- 
ture  of  sensuaHsm  represents  the  kind  of  atmos- 
phere we  had  to  breathe  in  Ruskin  during  this 
period.  There  is  no  ambiguity  in  its  language, 
no  Eve-hke  apron  of  leaves  to  cover  its  naked- 
ness, and  this  is  not  all  by  any  means.  We  hope 
the  reader  will  spare  us  the  necessity  of  exposing 
much  of  this. 

After  Cowell's  disappearance  from  Ruskin  a 
letter  was  returned  to  the  "Coming  Nation"  with- 
out any  individual  postmark.  Naturally  the  Sec- 
retary opened  and  read.  It  proved  to  have  been 
written  by  Cowell.    It  read  as  follows  : 

Ruskin,  Tenn.,  Sept.  28.   1897. 

Comrade  Dorring — Yours  of  21st  at  hand  not 
a  moment  too  soon.  The  "Coming  Nation" 
should  have  been  on  press  when  your  letter  was 
handed  me,  but  fortunately  the  paper  was  late 
and  I  got  in  two  notices,  one  by  Pilgrim  and  one 
by  myself.  Had  I  received  the  letter  a  day 
earlier  I  would  have  printed  the  Oregonian  ar- 
ticle and  written  a  denunciation  of  the  outrage. 

The  expected  has  happened,  but  the  "Fire 
Brand"  must  live.  Myself  and  another  printer 
are  'endeavoring  to  make  arrangements  to  come 
out  there  soon.  See  that  whoever  has  the  print- 
ing material  in  charge  holds  onto  it  in  case  our 
comrades  are  sent  to  prison. 

I  hope  to  be  able  to  reach  Sellwood  before  the 
trial,  but  may  not  be  able  to  do  so.  In  that  case, 
let  me  know  the  results.  If  the  Fire  Brand  is 
suppressed  as  a  publication  we    will     have    to 


ANARCHY  AND  FREE  LOVE  T25 

cliaiigc  the  name.  If  llicv  rclusc  to  let  us  semi 
Anarchy  through  tlie  mails  we  may  be  able  to 
send  Free  Socialism,  but  we  must  keep  up  the 
light. 

Now  we  want  a  few  copies  of  the  suppressed 
edition  and  enclose  stamps  for  same.  Put  each 
copy  in  an  envelope  without  any  marks  to  betray 
\ou'rself  and  put  letter  postage  on  it.  Then  send 
them  to  addresses  given  below. 

I  have  no  cash  just  yet,  and  cash  talks  just 
now,  but  am  taking  up  a  collection  which  I  wdll 
send  Saturday  if  possible. 

I  shall  try  to  get  in  some  more  in  next  week's 
"Coming  Nation"  on  the  matter  of  our  comrades' 
arrest. 

Give  them  my  sympathy  and  tell  them  I  hope 
to  meet  them  soon. 

Send  sealed  papers  to  Chas.  L.  Govan  and  F. 
A.  Cowell,  both  Ruskin,  Tenn. 

Postscript : — Since  writing  this  letter  my  call 
for  contributions  has  been  taken  down  by  the 
Ruskin  dictators,  Broome,  Calkins  and  Juste- 
ment,  and  I  have  been  duly  lectured  for  the  ap- 
l)earance  of  Anarchist  articles  in  "Coming  Na- 
tion," but  I  made  'em.  apologize  and  will  make 
"em  whine  before  I  am  through  with  the  d — d 
stinkers. 

Show  this  to  Addis  if  you  can.  T  will  now 
have  to  leave  here  soon.  Cowell. 

This  was  the  outbreak  that  in  nineteen  months 
was  to  level  Ruskin.  To  close  her  out  by  a  re- 
ceiver, not  for  debt,  but  for  disagreement.  The 
legislation  was  unusual,  without  ])recedent.    The 


126  r.AST     DAYS     OF     RTTSKIN 

result  to  us  was  cquall}-  falal.  Tliosc  wliu  studi- 
ously read  these  pages  will  see  plaiul}'  that  it  was 
not  all  Anarchy  and  I-'rce  Love,  or  Injunctionist. 
We  could  have  survived  all  these.  Indeed,  have 
paid  them  off  had  we  had  any  kind  of  1)usiness 
management.  The  management  was  by  the  same 
lot  of  people  as  the  Injunctionists.  They  all  came 
in  with  Wayland,  or  immediately  after.  They 
were  one  and  all  the  very  demons  of  ill  luck. 

Soon  after  Cowell  left  Ruskin.  papers  were 
mailed  to  several  members  showing  that  he  had 
carried  out  his  purpose  of  a  successor  to  the  sup- 
pressed "Fire  Brand"  newspaper,  under  the  title 
of  "Free  Society."  We  quote  a  sample  of  its  lit- 
erature, called 

"marriage  versus  lip.ertv. 

'"Why  should  one  part  of  the  human  body  be 
less  pure  and  noble  than  another  part?  Why 
should  it  be  improper,  nay,  indecent,  to  speak  of 
and  explain  the  proper  functions  of  one  organ, 
while  it  is  right  and  proper  to  speak  thus  of  an- 
other? Why  should  the  organs  of  procreation, 
of  reproduction,  be  called  vile  and  debased,  while 
we  extol  all  the  other  organs  and  the  conse- 
quences of  their  proper  use,  as  well  as  of  their 
abuse,  while  yet  they  are  ai)soIutely  necessary  to 
the  continuance  of  the  human  race  ? 

"Shall  I  shock  some  if  I  sa)'  marriage  in  all  its 
forms  is  a  blighting  curse,  a  z'ile  oifspring  of  the 
brutish  selfishness  of  nuvikind?  Marriage  is  the 
poisonous  cesspool  of  jealousy,  deception  and 
crime.    The  marriaofe  law  is  the  unnatural  check 


Al\A•RCTT^■   A.\n   IKl".!'.   I.O\l'".  \2'] 

wliicli  i^uads  Lliiiitsaiuls  inl(j  Ireu/.y  and  madness. 
.All  inlcrcuiirsc  (.)!"    whaLcvcr    doscrip- 
ii(;ii,  .should  be  perfectly  unrcslricted  between  all 
persons  whatever  their  sex."     '''     '■"     * 

— From  issue  of  Nov.  28,  1897. 

If  anything  more  is  needed  to  convince  the 
public  of  the  soundness  and  truth  of  the  position 
of  the  Socialists  of  Ruskin  in  antagonizing  the 
Anarchist  and  Free  Love  element  we  present  it 
in  the  following  announcement  taken  from  Luci- 
fer of  date  April  i,  1899,  as  follows  : 

"F.  j.  P.,  Tacoma,  Wash.:  During  the  past 
few  months  I  have  become  acquainted  with  Anna 
Aiarcus,  a  woman  who  dares.  The  first  week  in 
January  she  gave  birth  to  a  free  child,  a  fine  boy, 
which  she  named  Gieorge  Aiarcus  Cowell.  She 
says  her  heart  has  been  craving  him  for  ten  years, 
fler  true  woman's  pride  of  her  love  child  made 
me  call  her  one  of  the  Madonnas  of  freedom. 
She  is  a  Russian  woman  of  'twenty-eight  vears, 
uientally  and  i)hysically  (pialified  to  be  a  mother 
to  the  better  man. 

"Her  companion,  F.  A.  Cowell,  is  known  to 
most  of  the  radicals  as  one  of  the  ablest  writers 
in  the  cause  of  liberty.  15oth  'Free  Society'  and 
'Discontent'  received  recognition  through  his 
writings.  Flis  pen  is  idle  through  no  fault  of  his. 
Their  address  is  Lake  Bay,  Wash.  Good-luck 
to  the  free  couple  and  their  free  child." 

Chas.  Smith's  written  statement  of  his  inter- 
view with  our  barber  on  the  sex  question  is  unfit 
for  publication.     The  reader  will  have  to  be  con- 


128  LAST     DAYS     OF     RUSKIN 

tent  with  what  is  given  on  the  Anarchy  and  Free 
Love  snbject. 

All  this  is  fine  reading  for  the  Anarchists  who 
believe  Freedom  shonld  exist  in  everything.  To 
them  there  is  nothing  wrong  about  this  lascivious 
rot.  They  regard  us  as  ignorant  Socialist  fools, 
too  antiquated,  too  superstitious,  too  bigoted  to 
be  even  capable  of  entertaining  the  mighty  grasp 
of  their  philosophy  of  trading  breeches.  Of 
course  we  humbly  acknowdedge  our  moral  and 
intellectual  deficiencies  and  claim  that  we  are  not 
up  to  the  sensual  standard  as  set  forth  in  "Fire 
Brand"'  and  "Free  Society,"  and  are  willing  to 
yield  the  honors  to  Cowell  and  the  rest  of  the 
Ruskin  Free  Lovers. 

We  were  glad  to  be  so  ignorant  as  not  to  be 
able  to  appreciate  Wilda  Bloomfield  and  Cowell ; 
somewhat  proud  of  our  deficiencies.  There  were 
so  many  of  us  in  this  degraded  position  that  we 
turned  down  the  old  lot  of  Anarchists  and  Free 
Lovers  at  the  annual  election,  not  leaving  one  of 
them  in  any  position  of  trust  in  the  colony.  This 
was  "the  unkindest  cut  of  all.''  Like  Cassius, 
"their  occupation  and  reputation  w^ere  gone."  It 
was  a  blow  never  to  be  forgiven.  They  had  never 
been  out  of  office.  They  owned  the  offices.  Re- 
garded any  one  as  a  meddler  and  interloper  who 
came  near  the  association's  offices  owned  by  them. 
Their  occupation  had  become  constitutional  and 
when  they  were  ousted  it  went  hard,  was  an  in- 
dignity, not  to  be  brooked,  tolerated,  or  forgiven. 

You  should  have  seen  the  faces  of  the  editor 
and  the  barber  as  thev  left  the  hall  after  election. 


AXAKCIIV  AND   1-R1:K   L()\'E  I29 

Phew  !  weren't  they  mad  !  M-m-m-m — well.  1 
should  say  so.  Xs  they  passed  they  showed  their 
teeth  and  hissed  some  unpleasant  epithets  which 
\vc  will  excuse. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

INJUNCTION. 

The  woman  question,  so  called,  had  been  lum- 
bering along  like  a  load  of  hay,  more  or  less, 
ever  since  the  colony  started.  I  mean  the  ques- 
tion of  giving  women  the  franchise.  There  were 
some  legal  dilftculties  in  the  way,  and  some 
other  difificulties.  !Many  did  not  want  to  give 
women  the  franchise  because  they  were  afraid 
of  them.  The  question  had  been  up  and  strongly 
advocated  during  the  past  year.  .Vn  arrange- 
ment to  conform  to  the  law  had  been  made  to 
issue  stock  shares  to  women  so  that  they  could 
vote.  This  would  come  in  force  soon.  The  old 
charter  element  by  this  would  be  overwhelmed 
on  a  vote.  They  had  anticipated  being  defeated 
on  the  election,  and  had  tried  to  anticipate  the 
women's  franchise,  by  putting  in  the  names  of 
seven  women  for  membership  whom  they  could 
depend  on  to  vote  their  way.  This  would  have 
enabled  them  to  hold  the  one-third  vote  on  all 
important  questions,  and  given  them  control  of 
the  finances.  The  trick  did  not  work.  The  So- 
cialists said  "elect  all  or  none,"  and  the  names 
of  the  seven  brave  sisters  were  withdrawn. 

Then  a  resolution  was  put  through  to  give 
all  women  the  right  to  acquire  the  franchise 
through  labor  credits.  Now  here  is  the  point 
where    \ou    must   watch    for    the    trick.      1    said 


awhile  ago  that  the  old  charters  anticipated  the 
chances  of  losing  the  election  by  putting  up  the 
seven  brave  sisters'  names  to  hel])  thcni  out. 
These  they  had  to  withdraw.  Well,  then  they 
slipped  off  to  the  court  and  got  an  injunction  to 
stop  all  of  the  women  from  getting  credits  for 
stock  shares.  This  was  sprung  on  the  Colony  on 
the  morning  of  the  election.  Very  cute,  indeed. 
it  just  worked  the  other  way,  the  Socialists  re- 
ceived it  with  ap])lause,  and  swept  every  one  of 
ilicni  out  of  office. 

Well,  like  the  Garden  of  Eden,  the  women 
brought  on  the  trouble.  If  we  had  not  had  any 
women  we  would  not  have  had  any  trouble.  One 
trouble  was  brought  on  by  eating"  the  apples. 
The  other  was  brought  on  by  trying  to  give  them 
'■'Acs.  I'oth  had  the  same  effect.  The  apples 
.' mashed  up  the  Garden  of  Eden,  the  votes 
smashed  up  Ruskin.  At  least  that  was  the  osten- 
sible reason.  If  woman  had  not  been  in  the  ques- 
tion we  woiUd  have  had  no  Free  Love  schism, 
either. 

This  complete  knock-out  of  office  to  a  set  of 
men  who  had  been  in  the  saddle  since  the  institu- 
tion started,  was  productive  of  an  uncomfortable 
feeling  on  their  part,  which  rankled  in  their 
bosoms.  They  had  entered  upon  the  field  of  in- 
junctions and  this  became  their  chief  business  un- 
til Ruskin  ended  under  the  "Injunction  and  Re- 
ceiver" on  June  22,  1899. 

I-'rom  this  time  on  injunctions  became  as  famil- 
iar as  household  words.  The  titles  of  the  Anar- 
chists  and    Free   Lovers   were   changed   to   In- 


132  LAST     DAYS     OF     RUSKIN 

junctionists.  These  people,  one  and  all,  devoted 
themselves  wholly  to  scheming  how  to  ruin  Ras- 
kin. They  told  us  plainly  that  "they  would  either 
rule  or  ruin/'  Anarchism,  Free  Love  and  office 
were  all  lost.  There  was  nothing  left  hut  the 
passion  to  destroy. 

The  editor  and  the  barber  occupied  one  of  the 
injunction  tables  in  the  dining-room.  These  two 
apostles  of  Free  Love  w^ere  very  warm  friends, 
quite  devoted  to  each  other.  Their  wives  were 
also  bosom  friends,  equally  devoted.  These  two 
advanced  and  progressive  ladies  benevolently 
tried  to  introduce  at  this  time,  the  habit  of  wear- 
ing knickerbocker  pants.  One  of  the  ladies  was 
stout,  the  other  thin.  The  match  was  not  what 
would  please  a  horseman,  but  it  went  in  Ruskin 
l^retty  well,  and  seemed  to  delight  the  eyes  and 
taste  of  the  in  junctionists.  The  Socialists  being 
too  far  down  in  the  scale  of  intelligence  to  appre- 
ciate these  advanced  steps  towards  breeches.  I 
wonder  why  colony  women  take  to  pants !  That 
is  to  say,  the  Free  Love  branch  of  women.  The 
Fourierites,  back  in  the  thirties,  did  the  same.  It 
seems  a  general  tendency  in  all  the  accounts  we 
have  read.  Perhaps  it  is  the  first,  primitive  step 
towards  that  combination  of  the  feminine  and 
masculine  which  Balzac  calls  in  his  story  of 
Seraphita.  "The  hermaphroditic  mind." 

Well,  the  ladies  are  always  admirable  even  if 
thcv  look  daggers  at  us,  make  faces  and  stick  out 
llieir  tongues.  (Gentlemen,  with  the  same  habits, 
do  not  show  up  to  the  same  advantage. 

These   two   Free    Love   advocates   planned   a 


RUSK  IN    PANTS. 


INJUNCTION  133 

hrilliaiu  canipaij^ii  asjainst  tln-'ir  enemies  thai 
was  lo  immortalize  them  hoih  and  hand 
them  down  to  posterity.  In  the  dining- 
room  four  tables  distant  sat  two  men  who  had 
l)een  more  than  any  others  hated  as  political  op- 
ponents. The  brilliant  campaign  was  directed 
against  them.  It  was  opened  and  continued  with- 
out intermission  for  several  months  by  mocking 
their  movements  while  eating,  ')y  making  faces 
and  i^erforming  pantomimic  conduct  that  was  as 
remarkable  as  it  was  unique. 

The  -object  was  evidently  to  beat  down  by 
these  persistent  insults  the  patience  and  temper 
of  these  two  men.  They  held  out,  however,  and 
the  mockers  w^ere  rewarded  for  their  pains  b}- 
the  disapprobation  of  nearly  every  one  in  the 
dining-room.  Their  characters  ran  down  and 
ihev  both  lost  ground  in  public  estimation. 

The  editor  was  about  this  time  making  a  strug- 
gle to  get  control  of  the  "Coming  Nation."  He 
and  his  Anarchist  friends  fought  hard  against 
the  Socialists,  but  he  went  under  and  was  re- 
lieved from  the  editorship.  His  stereotyped  edi- 
torial in  the  "Coming  Nation"  was  no  more, 
"."socialism  is  jaot  Competition.  Competition  is 
n(jt  Socialism.  Socialism  is  not  Competition. 
Competition  is  not  Socialism."  Then  for  dessert 
he  gave  us,  "There  are  four  thieves:  IntereKt, 
i^ent.  Wages,  and  Taxes.  These  are  the  four 
thieves,  Rent,  Interest,  Taxes  and  Wages.  The 
four  thieves  are  Wages,  Taxes,  Interest  and 
I\ent."     It  was  splendid  reading.     So  varied. 

A  grand  j)arty  was  given  the  editor  over  at  the 


134  f-^ST     DAYS     OF     RUSK  IN 

village  of  Edgewood  before  his  departure.  The 
Injunctionists  boomed  the  affair.  The  women 
wore  their  pants  over  to  make  the  occasion  more 
pronounced.  Tliey  succeeded.  It  astonished  the 
natives.     "The  monarch"  was  feted.     He  was  to 


eave  us. 


Two  young  men,  with  a  team  and  covered 
wagon,  had  spent  the  winter  at  Ruskin  and  Edge- 
Vv'ood.  They  thought  that  every  seven-year-old 
child  should  be  taught  Free  Love ;  1)ut  were 
v.orking  the  Socialists  and  had  traveled  from 
Cleveland  converting  the  heathen  on  the  way. 
Our  editor  joined  the  caravan.  Destination.  Chi- 
cago. He  had  stated  that  there  were  too  many 
d— d  Socialists  around  here  and  we  would  have 
to  get  rid  of  them.  They  did  not  go.  so  he  went 
himself.  The  convention  of  the  Social  Demo- 
crats v.'as  coming  on.  He  arrived  in  time.  The 
convention  split.  He  was  one  of  the  splitters, 
and  he  landed  on  the  editorial  staff"  of  another 
newspaper. 

We  are  wandering  away  from  our  beloved 
Ruskin.  Pardon  us.  We  had  a  Lyceum.  Its 
humble  beginnings  were  of  the  manger  and 
shepherd  type.  The  aristocrats  of  the  intellect 
\vould  not  touch  it ;  they  could  not  be  expected  to. 
At  the  baby  Lyceum's  birth  a  few  very  common 
mudsills  were  present.  They  kept  adding  to 
their  vulgar  numbers  until  size  began  to  at- 
tract the  attention  of  the  great.  The  aristocrats 
of  the  intellect  appeared.  They  started  in  to  over- 
whelm us  with  their  greatness.  Their  greatness 
was  too  great ;  it  fell  over    everything.     Heavy 


ix.H'xcrioN  135 

hollies  are  slow,  aw  fully  slow.  These  heavy  in- 
tellects were  so  slow  that  they  had  not  moved 
for  fort}'  or  fifty  years.  The  world  had  gone  for- 
ward a  o^ood  little  bit  since  then  and  the  aristoc- 
racy- of  intellect  made  the  discovery  after  they 
struck  the  L}ceum  two  or  three  times. 

It  is  a  sad  siL^ht  to  see  g-reatness  eclipsed  by 
ihe  smaller  and  weal^er  up-to-date  intellects.  It 
is  sad  to  witness  the  scorn  of  greatness  when  its 
pretensions  are  knocked  out  of  water  by  intellects 
of  much  smaller  bore,  but  more  penetrating.  It 
was  pain.ful  to  see  the  aristocracy  of  intellect  re- 
treat and  abandon  the  Lyceum  to  the  common 
Xazarene  people  and  the  shepherds. 

When  the  season  came  again  for  the  Lyceum, 
the  upper  crust  had  us.  Our  Lyceum  was  balked. 
The  officers  were  fixed.  They  had  been  seen,  and 
the  Lyceum  was  held  back ;  we  could  not  get  it 
called.  "Our  buyer"  was  president.  The  subse- 
quently absconding  postmaster,  who  took  the 
pauper's  oath  as  an  injunctionist  on  a  salary  of 
$1,100  a  year,  was  secretary.  The  plebeians  finally 
announced  a  call  for  the  Lyceum  on  the  black- 
l^oard.  Our  editor's  son  rubbed  it  ofi^.  Tt  was 
nnounced  again.  The  Superintendent  of  In- 
Mructinn,  who  was  in  the  friendly  ring,  rubbed  it 
•V.  I'he  ])lebs  began  to  get  mad.  A  greater 
danger  knocked  down  the  lesser  and  the  Lyceum 
v\ent  on  without  the  constellation  of  .\narchistic 
^lars,  who  spurned  us. 

These  rulers  of  Ruskin  felt  as  though  the}- 
owned  Ruskin  and  many  people  thought  so,  too. 
They  threw  their  influence  strongly    to  prevent 


136  LAST     DAYS     OF     RUSKIN 

practical  questions  being  discussed.  It  wks  im- 
portant  to  them  that  no  discussion,  analysis,  or 
criticism  should  be  made  in  the  Lyceum.  Sub- 
jects away  off  in  cloud-cuckoo  town  were  good 
enough.  For  pity's  sake,  don't  discuss  the  ad- 
ministration. 

The  stockholders'  meetings  had  been  abolished. 
There  was  no  meeting  place  for  the  people,  ex- 
cept the  Lyceum,  and  that  was  dangerous. 

The  constable's  wagon  passes.  He  has  two  In- 
junctionists  with  him.  They  jeer  at  me  as  they 
pass.  A  reflector  lantern  is  in  my  hand.  They 
ask  if  I  am  Diogenes  looking  for  an  honest  man. 
Thev  are  going  to  jail.  The  first  incarceration 
in  Ruskin.  A  fine  for  cursing  a  lad_\'  in  the  din- 
ing-room, or  twelve  days  in  jail.  They  took  the 
twelve  da}s. 

This  grew  out  of  an  ugly  feeling  existing  with 
the  Injunctionist  element  in  the  printery.  \\'c 
had  a  strike.  A  strike  under  Socialism.  The 
printers  had  quit  work.  They  meant  it.  The 
"Coming  Nation"  was  tied  up.  They  wanted  the 
foreman  discharged.  He,  too,  was  one  of  the  old 
lot.  He  had  split  off  on  the  Free  Love  issue. 
They  did  not  like  him.  Claimed  that  he  had  ways 
of  making  things  disagreeable.  A  strike  under 
Socialism  made  everybody  mad.  That  was  an 
outrage  not  to  be  tolerated.  What  excuse  could 
a  strike  have  where  the  strikers  owned  the  thing 
thev  struck  against.  It  seems  ridiculous,  doesn't 
it  ?  Yet  it  happened.  It  was  here.  You  might 
shut  your  mental  science  eyes  and  say.  "There 
was   no   strike."     The   strike   was  there   all   the 


INJUNCTION  137 

same.  There  was  110  vision  about  it.  It  was  a 
real  strik-e.  You  could  walk  uj)  to  it  and  touch  it. 
Eyes  might  deceive  you,  but  feeling  was  believ- 
ing. The  cowardice  of  tiie  small  investor  came 
uppermost  and  the  strikers  got  the  foreman  re- 
moved. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

THE    WRECK. 

I  might  as  well  tell  you  how  the  printery  was 
ruined  and  its  capacity  lor  doing  business  de- 
stroyed. (Jn  the  cleaning  of  the  Injunctionists 
out  of  office  in  January,  1898,  we  elected  as  Pres- 
ident our  redoubtable  party-splitter  from  Wyom- 
ing, previously  mentioned  as  School  Superinten- 
dent, and  put  two  new  members  with  him  as  \'ice 
Presidents,  thinking  to  hold  him  level. 

Things  went  booming  for  a  couple  of  months. 
There  was  a  spirit  and  enterprise  in  Ruskin  such 
as  had  never  been  seen  before.  Everyone  was 
in  great  heart.  A  new  era  had  dawned.  Even 
the  Injunctionists  admitted  that. 

Wyoming  was  a  brilliant  man  on  a  spurt.  Like 
all  spurters  he  soon  gave  out.  His  force  was 
expended  on  the  spurt.  He  had  other  qualities 
beside  a  spurter.  He  was  a  vacillating  character, 
fond  of  change.  He  could  not  live  without 
cliangc.  li;  was  his  nature.  Continuity  was  for- 
eign to  him.  After  a  few  months  at  anything  he 
would  flatten  out  and  would  manage  a  change  at 
any  sacrifice.  If  elected  to  an  office  he  had  a 
chronic  habit  of  resigning.  No  matter  what  >-ou 
did  or  how  easy  the  berth  you  made  for  him,  he 
became  discontented,  would  get  up  a  schism,  join 
any  side  for  a  change.  You  could  never  tell 
u  here  he  was.    We  did  not  want  him  verv  badlv 


I  111-:    w  Ki'.cK  T39 

Tor  1 'resident,  but  elected  him  for  fear  he  \v(juld 
ll\  olT  at  a  taii.i;ent,  get  up  a  spHt  in  tlie  niajorit}', 
and  tlien  hold  the  balance  of  power.  We  did  not 
want  him  as  Secretary,  because  we  had  a  steadier 
man  for  that  position,  and  had  tried  him  before. 

Well,  ai  the  end  of  a  couple  of  months  or  so, 
lie  began  to  hob-nob  with  the  [njunctionists. 
These  latter  were  thick  in  the  printing  office.  He 
evidently  feared  that  they  might  interfere  with 
the  getting  out  of  the  paper.  This  was  part  of  it, 
and  the  other  part  was  his  inconstant  nature. 

-As  soon  as  this  was  perceived  by  the  other 
iifncials  and  the  members  of  the  colony,  a  wet 
blanket  of  discouragement  fell  on  everybody  at 
'  <ucc.  The  elan  and  spirit  which  animated  the 
])eople  who  had  wrenched  the  administration  out 
of  the  hands  of  their  enemies  was  destroyed  by 
ib.c  attitude  of  the  President. 

About  the  beginning  of  May  he  was  overheard 
in  a  conversation  with  the  press  foreman,  one  of 
the  injunctionists,  about  selling  the  book  job 
press.  Tliis  was  kept  quiet  until  Jmie..  W'yoming. 
in  the  meantime,  artfully  got  the  Board  of  Direc- 
tors to  consent  to  trading  the  book  press  for  some 
other  machinery,  under  the  plea  that  the  press 
was  defective.  The  board  was  composed  of  what 
we  later  called  the  thirteen  wooden  clothespins. 
All  they  wanted  to  do  was  to  get  through  with  the 
meetings  and  go  home.  Thinking  v,-as  an  irk- 
some task  to  them.  It  disturbed  their  heads. 
They  were  nearl;,'  all  just  the  meat  for  a  wily 
])olitician.  He  managed  to  get  the  disposition  of 
the  press  referred  to  the  Kxecuti\'e  I'oard.  and  he 


140  LAST     DAYS     OF     RUSKIN 

artfully  suggested  "The  buyer."     (You  see  how 
snug  these  old   ringsters  work    in     together.) 
Y-a-a-s,  agreed  the  board.     "The  buyer."' 

The  way  was  now  clear  for  Wyoming  to  ac- 
complish trading  the  press  and  to  render  the 
])lant  worthless  for  doing  business.  The  motive 
was  not  then  apparent.  He  succeeded  getting  the 
First  \'ice  President  to  commit  himself,  who 
afterwards  repented  and  remained  neutral.  The 
Second  Vice  President  was  as  mad  as  an  en- 
raged bull,  but  he  was  one  of  the  kind  who  would 
not  get  out  and  fight  the  thmg  down. 

So  Wyoming,  having  driven  him  off  and  neu- 
tralizing the  other  decided  to  go  ahead  with  the 
"buyer,"  who  was  believed  to  be  safe  and  sound 
to  trade  anything,  from  the  press  to  his  mother's 
bones,  if  he  could  only  trade. 

When  the  political  situation  was  worked  this 
far  and  the  two  had  decided  to  act,  word  was 
passed  to  the  injunctionist  pressman,  and  the 
])ress  was  taken  down  in  less  than  half  a  day, 
boxed  and  pushed  out  into  the  hall  ready  for  ship- 
ment. There  was  an  indecent  haste  about  the 
iiiatter,  which  showed  determination  to  get  it  off 
l:iefore  any  time  could  be  had  to  stop  it. 

During  the  time  that  the  matter  was  pending 
some  of  our  people  began  to  wonder  why  the 
press  was  being  traded  for  other  machinery,  that 
was  not  an  absolute  necessity,  and  left  us  without 
a  press,  and  our  plant  without  the  power  to  do 
job  or  book  work.  They  began  t-o  investigate 
and  inquire.  The  argument  was  that  the  press 
would   not   register.      W^e   examined   the   books 


THE    WKliCK  141 

])riiUc(l  on  il,  with  the  aid  of  the  foreman,  and 
found  that  statement  was  untrue.  The  foreman 
of  the  largest  printing  plant  in  the  South  hap- 
l^ened  to  visit  us.  He  told  us  that  our  plant 
would  be  worthless  if  we  sold  the  press.  That 
it  was  an  intermediate  size  and  the  very  best  for 
our  purposes.  For  heaven's  sake,  not  to  sell  it.  I 
t(jok  him  to  our  stony  "buyer."  You  might  as 
well  have  talked  to  a  (juarry.  Cut  the  press  had 
to  go,  and  out  it  did  go.  The  apathy  of  the  peo- 
ple and  the  Uoard  of  Directors  made  it  possible 
for  these  demons  of  ill-luck  to  do  as  they  pleased, 
arid  this  was  part  of  the  ruin  that  these  same 
parties,  with  the  aid  of  others,  brought  u])on 
Ruskin,  that  obliterated  her  from  the  face  of  the 
earth  in  spite  of  all  the  patriots  could  do,  in  just 
one  year  from  the  ruin  of  the  printcry  by  the 
sale  of  the  book  press. 

The  struggle  to  save  the  press  at  the  last  mo- 
ment was  ineffectual.  ''Wyoming"  played  his 
cards  well,  with  the  thirteen  wooden  clothes-pins 
of  directors.  These  did  not  know  whether  the 
press  was  wanted  or  not.  With  them  everything 
was  all  right.  Any  way  at  all.  All  they  looked 
for  in  this  wond  was  another  $500  from  mem- 
bership fees  to  blow  in.  Incapable  of  any 
other  idea.  Our  $1,100  press  was  traded  ofif  for  a 
jiower  paper  cutter  and  perforator  costing  $350. 
we  to  pay  the  freight  to  Chicago.  It  was  done. 
Yes,  done.  We  paid  $75  freight,  giving  us  $275 
for  our  splendid  Campbell  press.  Oiu"  printery 
was  left  a  barren  desert  so  far  as  job  and  book 


14-^  LAST     DAYS     OF     RUSKIN 

business  was  concerned,  and  stands  so  lo-da}-  in 
the  hands  of  a  receiver. 

The  effect  of  the  sale  of  the  press  created  quite 
a  strong  impression  around  the  colon}^  that  things 
were  not  right,  that  there  v,'as  something  crooked 
about  the  affair.  In  consequence  of  it  the  two 
\'ice  Presidents  resigned  and  both  left  the  col- 
ony. The  President  held  out  a  little  over  two 
months,  resigned  twice  in  that  time  ;  the  second 
time  his  resignation  was  accepted.  He  became 
practically  an  outcast  and  declared  "that  from 
that  time  forth  he  would  knife  the  majority."  He 
got  himself  removed  to  the  chicken  farm,  retired 
from  everybody,  until  he  made  a  failure  of  chick- 
ens, and  with  the  same  changeful  nature  worked 
himself  back  into  the  printery  and  into  the  editor- 
ship after  "The  Bishop"  left.  He  is  now  in  the 
front  rank  with  the  old  element  on  the  Com- 
mittee of  Safety,  and  trying  to  make  a  compro- 
mise with  the  injunctionists,  who  have  us  by  the 
thro'at  through  the  imbecility  and  incompetency 
of  our  calamity  officers,  who  have  been  handling 
the  job. 

The  President  has  frequently  entertained  us 
with  stories  of  "ye  old  tyme"  when  he  was  living 
out  in  Anarchy.  It  has  been  a  pride  to  him  to 
relate  how  he  sold  out  the  influence  of  his  paper 
in  the  Wyoming  oil  regions  to  the  Republican 
candidate.  How,  when  he  was  Mayor  of  the  wild 
dance  house  and  gin  mill  oil  town,  lie  and  the 
l)oliceman  used  to  work  the  law-breaking  citi- 
zens and  divide  the  spoils.  And  assures  us  that 
if  he  ever  had  to  go  back  to  competitive  life  again 


THE    WRECK  143 

it  would  l)c  his  sole  object  to  g'o  for  the  other 
fellow. 

A  loyal  and  noble  member  came  to  me  one 
morning  some  time  after  the  President's  resigna- 
tion and  told  me  of  a  conspiracy  which  he 
thought  he  had  discovered  to  still  further  loot 
the  printery  of  all  it  contained  and  to  carry  ofif  the 
valuable  perfector  press  to  Toledo. 

Several  gentlemen  were  secretly  assembled  at 
once  and  acquainted  with  the  supposed  conspir- 
acj-.  We  wrote  down  the  information  and 
pledged  ourselves  to  keep  secret  and  be  on  the 
watch,  to  detect  the  slippery  ofBcial  whom  we 
suspected  to  be  at  the  bottom  of  the  afTair. 

A  suggestion  that  was  privately  made  by  one 
of  the  parties  to  transfer  our  printing  plant  to 
Toledo,  and  there  run  the  "Coming  Nation"  and 
a  proposed  new  Socialist  daily  together,  put  us 
on  our  guard.  The  plant  was  saved  by  our  vigil- 
ance to  Ije  wrecked  Uiter  on  into  the  liands  of  the 
receiver  by  the  same  old  element.  There  were 
some  differences  in  the  way  it  was  done,  but  re- 
sults were  the  same. 

Since  Wayland's  time  there  had  been  no  pur- 
])ose  in  the  "Coming  Nation,"  if  we  except  the 
spirit  of  the  college  movement  in  the  winter  and 
spring  of  1896.  Since  then  the  paper  had  been 
dying  and  dead  to  any  movement  that  would 
cause  resi:>oct  from  the  reform  world.  It  lum- 
bered along  until  a  wandering  telegraph  operator 
cp.lled  Pilgrim  addod  his  growl  and  slang  to  its 
columns.  Then  came  a  period  of  vacanc\-  until 
our  FJishop  turned  up  to  give  it  an  impulse,  in 


144  LAST     DAYS     OF     RUSKIN 

which  the  reform  movement  was  largely  lost'  in 
the  prominence  of  himself.  Now  that  he  was 
gone,  the  "Coming  Nation"  was  again  vacant, 
without  motive  or  purpose. 

The  whole  situation  was  laid  before  the  Execu- 
tive Board.  It  was  shown  why  the  "Coming  Na- 
tion" declined  from  its  great  circulation  under 
^^'ayland.  It  was  urged  that  the  time  was  ripe 
for  a  great  convention  to  unite  all  reformers  and 
that  the  "Coming  Nation''  should  take  the  initia- 
tive and  vigorously  support  such  a  movement. 
That  such  a  movement  would  place  Ruskin  back 
again  in  a  respectable  position. 

The  proposition  commended  itself  to  the  Exec- 
utive Board.  They  ordered  a  call  to  be  prepared 
and  also  private  communications  to  leading  re- 
formers by  letter  asking  to  aid  the  movement. 
The  call  was  written,  set  in  type  and  the  letters 
mailed. 

Wyoming  had  been  sent  from  the  chicken  farm 
to  set  type  at  the  printery.  He  evidently  had  his 
eye  on  the  job  of  editing  the  paper.  He  saw  the 
article  set  in  type  and  also  imagined  that  there 
was  danger  to  his  hope  of  the  editorship.  He 
gathered  up  two  more  of  the  old  obstructionist 
element  and  contrived  to  get  up  a  referendum  to 
stop  the  call  for  the  convention,  under  the  plea 
that  it  would  swamp  the  Secretary  with  corre- 
spondence and  break  up  the  association.  This 
bait  took  well  with  the  mob  imder  the  influence 
of  the  old  element.  The  fact  was  that  the  Sec- 
retary would  not  have  been  troubled. 

Another  plea  was  that  a  call  for  a  convention 


Till':    W'KF.CK  T45 

had  jusi  been  issued  U)  meet  at  Buffalo,  June  28th 
to  July  4llt.  This  unknown  call  for  a  convention 
was  not  hrtMii^hi  lorward  opeul\.  hui  a  referen- 
dum petition  to  stop  our  call  was  privately  cir- 
culated and  signed  by  the  regular  followers  of 
this  trio  of  the  old  element. 

The  first  thing  the  Executive  Board  knew  was 
a  hold-up  of  the  call  to  prevent  its  going  into 
the  paper,  by  these  three  fellows  getting  25  per 
cent  of  the  members  (mostly  hard  scrabble)  to 
-ign  the  petition.  It  was  a  mortifying  position 
lor  the  executive  offtcers  w-ho  were  at  that  time 
running  tlie  paper,  who  were  also  committed 
through  private  correspondence  to  many  of  the 
Ijest  people  in  the  reform  movemcr.t.  It  dis- 
gusted them  wiiii  attempting  to  manage  the  pa- 
l)er,  and  they  turned  it  over  to  wily  Wyoming, 
just  what  he  wanted,  and  as  soon  as  he  secured 
the  position  of  editor,  the  referendum  petition 
disappeared  and  was  never  heard  of  more. 

The  very  next  week  he  pretended  to  be  sliort 
of  matter  and  called  on  the  author  of  the  article 
proposing  to  simply  change  the  heading  and  end- 
ing of  the  call  and  use  it  for  the  Buffalo  conven- 
tion, ft  made  no  difference  to  the  author.  So 
the  ca'l  that  \\'yoming  condemned  when  not  ed- 
itor was  approved  when  he  secured  the  editor- 
ship. Headed  differently  to  cloak  his  position. 
The  difference  was  that  the  call  as  a  "Coming- 
Nation"  movement  was  not  sustained,  because 
the  man  wdio  had  the  political  cunning  to  inter- 
fere and  stop  it,  had  not  the  abilitv  to  carry  it 
out.     A  nonentity  among  men,  but  an  effective 


14^  LAST     DAYS     OF     RUSKIN 

])olitician    anioni^"   the   siniple-niindcd    people   of 
Ruskiii. 

By  mere  accident  (it  could  not  have  been  oth- 
erwise) an  auditing  board  was  elected  that  year 
who  looked  into  the  books  with  a  microscopic 
e\e.  They  took  nothing  for  granted.  Their  strict 
methods  had  been  vmknown  in  Ruskin  before. 
They  counted  the  cash  and  looked  after  the 
balances. 

The  young  Treasurer's  cash  bookkeeping  was 
not  quite  up  to  date,  each  month  showed  too 
much  money  or  too  little  accounted  for.  It  was 
profit  and  loss  on  one  side  or  the  other,  from  a 
couple  of  dollars  up  to  $20,  $30.  $40  or  more. 
The  auditors  had  to  report  it.  They  could  not 
cover  it  up.  The  people  did  not  care  much.  Did 
not  kn(jw  the  difference  between  a  del)it  and. 
credit.  The  auditors  could  not  help  that ;  they 
kept  doing  their  duty. 

\A\^  had  an  Irish  Secretary  who  got  out  of 
temper  one  night  over  the  auditors'  report.  This 
thing  of  reporting  defects  in  the  accounts  every 
month  was  "hurting  the  party."  Pie  resented 
the  auditors'  report ;  got  quite  angry  ;  said  that 
there  was  nothing  wrong  about  the  accounts ; 
that  we  were  short  $20  last  month  and  this  month 
we  were  $20  over  and  the  one  balanced  the  other, 
and  it  was  all  right,  sure,  and  so  it  was.  The 
argument  was  great  fun  for  a  few  who  under- 
stood business. 

The  bad  bookkeejDing  by  the  Treasurer  v.-as 
like  Banquo's  ghost,  it  would  not  down.  It 
made   no  dififercnce   to  the  thirteen   men   called 


THf-:    WRRCK  147 

clircL-lors.  E\or_\lliini^  was  all  rii:;!!!  with  iIk'iii. 
Indct'd,  ihcv  liatcd  any  one  who  offered  a  criti- 
cism on  anything  that  disturbed  their  serenity. 
It  could  not  be  helped,  the  auditors  had  to  do  it, 
under  the  by-laws,  and  they  kept  ri^ht  on  with 
their  duty. 

The  next  month  (December)  after  Mike  scold- 
ed the  auditors  about  the  $20,  over  $5,000  had 
been  paid  out  by  the  Treasurer  on  unsigned  or 
partly  signed  vouchers.  It  had  to  be  reported. 
To  some  extent  this  same  thing  had  been  done 
on  the  previous  inonth  ;  it  was  not  reported,  but 
orders  given  to  not  do  it  again.  In  December 
the  wdiole  thing  had  gone  wild  and  it  had  to  come 
out.  Whew !  didn't  the  ring  get  mad.  Not  at 
the  crime.  Oh !  no,  but  because  it  got  out.  Had 
it  been  after  election  it  would  have  made  no  dif- 
ference. The  Treasurer  was  reported  to  be  the 
one  who  was  to  be  elected  President.  The  ring 
could  then  do  as  it  pleased.  This  exposure  of 
business  incapacity  smashed  the  slate. 

It  was  too  bad.  No  fault  of  the  auditors.  A'ery 
sorry.  Might  just  as  well  elect  one  as  another. 
The  chances  then  switched  around  to  our  finan- 
cier. His  combination  with  the  Bishop  and  the 
mortgage  story,  told  elsewhere,  smashed  his  slate. 
So  the  reigning  President  sw-ung  back  into  the 
Presidency  on  a  bare  majority  vote.  The  rest 
of  the  sad,  sad  story  is  known  to  you.  Would 
you  believe  it,  the  Treasurer  was  re-elected.  Is 
it  any  wonder  we  broke  up  ? 

The  year  1899  opened  up  with  the  blast  about 
"eternal  vigilance  being  the  price  of  libertv" — in 


I4S  7.AST     DAYS     i  )F     KUSKIN 

ihc  hoard  of  Directors.  Lt  wcnl  along  smoothly 
so  long"  as  the  new  menil)ers  kej)!  cimiing  in  with 
their  $500.  I'lfteen  of  them  came  in  during  1899 
before  the  presence  of  the  receiver  stopped  the 
stream.  Poor  fellows!  they  are  here  now — 
wrecked.  They  and  their  families  are  crammed 
into  the  printer}-  and  other  holes,  with  the  rats 
running  over  them  at  night.  (Charlotte  Perkins 
Stetson  got  a  dose  of  these  rodents  when  here 
on  a  visit  and  wrote  us  a  poem  on  rats.)  They 
stand  it  pretty  well,  but  you  can  see  that  they 
are  bleeding  inside.  Some  with  big  families  hang- 
ing to  them.  This  compels  them  to  pull  in  v/ith 
the  newlv  organized  Commune  called  "The  Rus- 
kin  Commonwealth,"'  controlled  l)y  the  old  lot. 
which  is  to  them  a  possi1)le  straw  to  save  in  the 
sea  of  despair. 

Things  went  on  for  a  few  months  in  a  desul- 
tory wa\'.  tlie  I'resident  running  back  and  for- 
ward to  the  county  seat  in  the  injunction  cases, 
which  never  let  up.  When  at  home  he  signed 
vouchers  and,  being  a  heavy  man,  held  down  the 
office  chairs.  Our  First  Vice  President  was  a 
fine  man,  a  new  comer  who.  at  the  last,  apolo- 
gized for  his  stupidity  in  not  seeing  the  drift  of 
affairs  towards  wreck  and  ruin.  His  duties  as 
h'irst  \'ice  President  kept  him  outside  trying  to 
bring  the  large  plant  into  some  orderly  shape, 
for  it  seemed  to  him  that  it  had  not  received 
attention  from  any  of  his  predecessors  (which 
was  strictly  true).  His  mind  was  so  engaged 
with  the  business  and,  being  a  new  man,  he  did 
not  get  enlightened  on  mside  affairs  until  it  was 


Till':    WRECK  149 

too  laic.  To  which  wc  ini^iit  add  the  rosy  niis- 
slatcMiicnts  made  b}-  the  President  and  otu-  hnycr 
with  regard  to  the  advancement  and  tlourishing 
condition  of  the  law  cases. 

It  is  only  necessary  to  mention  a  fact  here 
and  there  to  connect  the  mind  of  the  reader  to 
the  conditions  existing'  in  Ruskin.  After  live 
years'  lioodlumism  in  finances  some  people  be- 
gan to  get  uneasy.  Wc  investigated  the  l)Ooks 
and  made  a  paralyzing  report  on  receipts  and  ex- 
penses. It  was  received  and  filed  by  the  apathetic 
directors  and  the  holocaust  went  on  just  the 
same.  It  was  as  late  as  May  13th  before  the 
stock hioldcrs  could  be  interested  enough  in  the 
dangerous  situation  of  the  executive  spending 
the  money  to  the  point  of  ruin.  A  meeting  was 
then  called  to  consider  taking  control  of  the 
finances  out  of  the  hands  of  the  Executive  Board. 
The  meeting  lasted  until  1  1  o'clock.  The  ancient 
element  held  for  the  Plxecutivc  Board  to  continue 
spending  the  money.  The  new  people  advocated 
the  control  by  the  directory  and  a  business  sys- 
tem. The  meeting-  was  quiet  and  orderly,  but 
feeling  was  deep.  We  were  near  the  edge  of  tlic 
precipice.  Every  efifort  was  made  to  hold  the 
purse  strings  by  the  Executive  Board.  Thev 
were  outclassed  in  argument  and  facts.  "Our 
Shepherd"'  advocated  the  one-man  power  and 
management,  whenever  we  found  one  capable 
man  to  do  it. 

( )p.  Monday  c\'cning-  cruue  the  slruggle  on  the 
referendum  (piestion.  "Shall  the  Ireasin-v  be  con- 
trolled bv  the  I'>oard  of  Directors?"     TJie  Presi- 


150  LAST     DAYS     OF     RUSKIN 

dent  and  "our  Imyer"  clement  had  every  vote  out 
they  could  get.  Their  women  had  votes,  few  or 
none  of  the  wives  of  new  members  had  votes  yet. 
Nevertheless  they  were  beaten — 48  to  35 — a  full 
test  vote  of  strength.  So  the  directory  took 
charge  of  the  finances  and  brought  some  order 
out  of  chaos  until  the  receiver  took  ttie  job  out  of 
their  hands. 

I  forgot  to  mention  the  argument  of  our  doc- 
tor at  the  stockholders'  meeting  of  May  13th.  He 
opposed  any  of  the  business  methods  in  vogue  in 
competition.  Bookkec])ing,  check  systems,  or 
departmental  accounts.  He  said  that  v,^e  had 
come  here  to  get  away  from  everything  in  the 
wav  of  business.  The  principle  was  characteristic 
of  everything  connected  with  the  doctor.  It  was 
the  same  old  argument — just  do  as  you  please. 

This  story  has  been  held  back  for  two  years 
because  its  publication  might  have  hurt  the  new 
organization.  "The  Ruskin  Commonwealth,"  that 
went  to  Duke,  Ga.,  after  we  were  sold  out.  That 
Commune  has  continued  in  strife  and  ended  in  an 
ugly  quarrel,  our  old  doctor  being  the  head  of 
the  quarreling  faction.  The  last  number  of  the 
"Coming  Nation"  has  published  the  story  of 
their  woes,  which  the  writer  (a  new  man)  claims 
thev  inherited  from  old  Ruskin.  The  Commune 
was  composed  of  the  politicians  and  the  ignorant 
clement  described  in  these  pages  and  their  failure 
corroborates  the  fact  that  ignorance  is  incapable 
of  self-government.  One  half  of  the  members 
have  gone  to  work  for  a  contractor  of  convict 
'abor.    The  same  as  they  did  at  Cumberland  fur- 


'I' I  IF,    WKICCK  r^i 


nace  after  the  Ruskin  smasliup.  Could  not  live 
under  favorable  conditions  without  fighting. 
Could  not  do  business  and  have  gone  to  pieces 
$6,000  in  debt. 


CHAPTER  X. 

THE   LAST   GASP. 

A  month  ago  the  court  had  given  us  permis- 
sion to  sell  the  place  out  ourselves  and  settle 
pro  rata  with  the  members.  Our  lawyer  had 
charged  us  to  keep  the  new  organization  we  pro- 
posed to  have  a  dead  secret.  To  elect  a  buyer 
to  buy  the  place  in  and  then  meet  to  elect  a 
trustee  and  organize.  Our  officers  ignored  the 
advice  of  our  lawyer  and  met  in  three  hours  after 
they  returned,  elected  a  buyer,  trustee,  committee 
and  began  to  organize,  started  a  system  of  forcing 
and  bulldozing  the  people  to  turn  over  their  R. 
C.  A.  stock  shares,  and  on  top  of  all  this  pub- 
lished the  whole  thing  in  the  "Coming  Nation," 
with  bragging  comments  and  denunciations  of 
tlie  injunctionists.  In  addition  the  neighbors 
were  solicited  to  not  bid  against  the  new  organi- 
zation for  the  property. 

The  injunctionists  took  our  published  state- 
ments of  what  we  were  going  to  do  with  them 
to  the  judge,  who  appointed  a  receiver  to  see  tliat 
justice  was  done.  That  is  the  whole  truth  of 
liow  the  receiver  sold  us  out.  Our  lav.}cr  was 
mad  at  our  disobedience  of  his  instruction:-  and 
the  wild  way  that  we  blazed  everything  before  the 
world,  and  made  an  able  effort  to  get  us  out  of 
ihe  .sx:ra])e,  but  all  of  no  avail.  Tiie  injunctionists' 
lawyer  made  no  plea.  He  simply  handed  our  pub- 


•11 II',  L.\s'i'  (1  \sr  153 

lislicd  statements  to  the  judge  and  stated  that 
they  answered  every  argument.  He  won,  of 
course.  The  judge  could  not  ignore  what  we 
i)urselves  had  put  in  print. 

']1ie  injunctionists  had  been  previously  dis- 
lieartened  and  would  have  accepted  any  settle- 
ment. The  politicians  on  our  side  had  taken 
control  of  the  victory  and  wanted  all  the  honor. 
We  were  watching  them,  however,  and  saw  them 
'^ailing  Ru.skin  on  to  the  rocks,  with  every  sail 
set. 

The  writer  of  this  book  went  to  ex-President 
Dodson,  of  the  injunctionist  side,  privately,  and 
-eriously  discussed  the  subject  of  a  disastrous 
finale  to  both  the  injunctionists  and  Ruskin.  He 
tried  all  that  was  possible  to  get  a  proposition  to 
settle  from  the  injunctionist  side.  They  consid- 
ered themselves  the  aggrieved  party  and  thought 
it  should  come  f'^om  the  majority  side,  but  would 
agree  to  compromise  and  settle.  Here  was  a 
stick  in  the  arrangements.  The  writer  went  be- 
fore the  Board  of  Directors  and  told  the  whole 
story,  making  a  proposition  as  an  intermediary, 
of  a  basis  of  settlement  which  had  substantially 
been  agreed  upon  with  the  injunctionists,  and 
asked  for  the  appomtment  of  a  conmiittee. 

Whew !  The  storm  that  was  raised.  One  old 
fellow  had  a  fit ;  he  yelled  straight  ahead.  You 
could  not  tell  what  he  was  trying  to  say.  A  lot 
more  had  fits  of  various  grades.  A  few  sensible 
l)eo])lc  tiied  to  stem  the  tide  of  lunacy  and  hate, 
bin  tlu'\-  were  overwhelmed.  Xo  !  Xo  !  Xe-e-c-v- 
c-v- !    Aiul  the  no  !  nevers  !  had  the  dav — wouldn't 


154  LAST     DAYS     OF     RUSKIN 

settle  with  injunctionists,  no  indeed — I  guess  not. 
All  right,  thought  the  writer,  go  on  with  the 
funeral. 

After  the  receiver  for  the  injunctionists  was 
appointed  a  change  came  o'er  the  spirit  of  the 
dream.  The  boot  was  on  the  other  leg.  The  no ! 
n-e-v-e-r-s  had  time  to  think.  It  was  their  ox 
that  was  being  gored  now.  That  made  a  great 
difference.  So  they  appointed  a  committee  of 
five  to  see  if  a  compromise  could  not  be  effected 
with  the  injunctionists.  As  usual,  a  majority  of 
the  committee  was  composed  of  those  whom  the 
injunctionists  would  not  do  business  with.  The 
committee,  after  all  the  disgraceful  brag  and 
bluster,  had  to  unsuccessfully  go  on  their  knees 
to  the  injunctionists. 

The  committee  was  told  that  they  could  have 
settled  the  difficulty  at  the  time  the  writer  made 
the  proposition.  That  then  they  were  disheart- 
ened and  would  gladly  have  taken  the  half  of  old 
Ruskin  and  a  little  help  to  start,  to  have  dropped 
the  fight,  but  now  it  was  too  late — too  late — the 
receiver  would  have  to  settle  it. 

As  a  forlorn  hope  the  old  committee  was  abol- 
ished and  a  new  one  of  all  new  people  except 
"our  buyer"  was  appointed.  He  was  put  on  to 
steer  the  crowd — the  ignorant  new  people  were 
not  to  be  trusted  to  do  business.  "Our  buyer" 
was  put  on  as  the  rudder.  This  met  no  better 
fate.  When  the  committee  told  the  injunction- 
ists that  they  would  lose  all  the  same  as  we 
would,  they  replied  that  it  made  no  difference, 
that  the  receiver  would  settle  it  now.    That  thev 


Till':    LAST   GASP  155 

were  in  a  litilc  better  shape  than  before.  On 
top. 

And  so  the  thini;-  stands,  the  receiver  is  boss 
and  the  injunctionists  arc  foremen.  We  have 
nothing-  to  say.  We  cannot  use  our  own  prop- 
erty. Have  nothing-  to  say  about  it.  We  are 
only  boarders,  and  not  very  saucy  ones  at  that. 
All' our  gatherings  and  property  are  being  sold 
out  before  our  eyes  and  we  dare  not  cheep  about 
it.  ^'ou  ought  to  see  how  the  impudent  fellows 
and  fellowesses  have  been  cooled  off.  The  swag- 
ger is  gone.    They  are  as  quiet  as  rnice. 

Let  us  go  back  a  little  to  the  court  trial  by  the 
injunctionists  for  a  receiver. 

There  was  and  had  been  an  awful  suspense.  It 
was  evident  from  the  looks  and  actions  of  our 
['resident  for  some  days  past  that  he  was  un- 
easv.  He  had  come  back  from  Nashville  for 
papers  and  showed  nervousness,  something  un- 
usual for  him.  What  looked  more  suspicious  and 
dangerous  was  the  fact  that  "our  buyer"  had 
been  left  in  Xashville.  constantly  with  out  law- 
yers and  the  court.  This  demon  of  ill-luck  we 
feared  would  supplement  the  crushing  disaster 
of  his  begging  letters  by  overdoing  things  in 
Nashville  and  thus  prejudice  the  mind  of  the 
judge  in  favor  of  the  injunctionists. 

June  2 1st,  1899,  "^""'^^  ^^^^  ^""^^  *^''"-'  l'<'tu-  of  TO 
arrived.  The  telephone  rang.  Hello  !  Hello  !  It 
was  om-  officers.  'AVe  have  lost.  Ilie  receiver 
for  the  injunctionists  is  appointed."  It  fell  upon 
the  colony  like  a  funeral  pall.  Yes.  it  was  leaden. 
At  1 1  o'clock  our  officers  drove  in,  the  most  woe- 


156  LAST     DAYS     3F     RUSKIN 

begone,  wilted  lot  of  people  1  ever  saw.  They 
were  gone,  completely  knocked  out,  without  a 
vestige  of  pluck  left.  The  President  had  main- 
tained a  great  front  of  confidence.  He  was  backed 
up  by  "our  buyer."'  That  was  all  on  earth  he 
had  to  lean  on.  "Our  buyer's"  brains  were  all 
that  there  was  between  Ruskin  and  the  pit  of 
ruin,  and  if  they  failed  we  were  gone.  Nothing 
could  keep  us  from  striking  bottom.  We  had 
struck. 

The  buyer's  face  showed  too  plainly  that  he 
had  played  his  last  card  and  had  lost.  He  real- 
ized that  he  had  to  face  three  himdred  ruined  pe(3- 
ple,  w^ho  had  supinely  let  him  and  the  President 
run  them  into  perdition.  His  eyes  met  the  glance 
of  those  who  had  opposed  his  methods  and  who 
previously  showed  what  the  result  would  be.  The 
result  had  come.  He  felt  it.  He  knew  also  the 
reproach  in  other  hearts.  His  look  was  haggard 
and  awful. 

At  dinner  time  we  were  notified  that  there 
would  be  a  meeting  of  the  members  of  the  pro- 
posed new  organization  held  in  the  cave.  Wh.cn 
I  say  cave,  do  not  get  an  idea  that  we  went  into 
pits  or  dismal  caverns — the  cave  meant  a  struc- 
ture on  the  level  of  the  ground  like  a  vast  depot, 
or  hall,  with  an  elliptical  roof  of  stone,  well- 
lighted,  with  a  lake  of  the  purest  water  in  the 
rear,  20  or  30  feet  deep.  It  was  a  magnificent 
structure,  formed  by  nature,  that  would  have 
been  wortii  an  inunense  sum  if  near  a  large 
city. 

We  gathered  iherc,  not  knowing  what  for.   The 


n 


m 


THE   LAST   GASP  15/ 

people  knew  lliat  iliey  luul  to  get  together.  Inn 
had  no  dehniie  object  in  view,  and  many  asketl 
wIkii  are  we  here  for?  It  showed  np  after  a  Httle 
while.  The  officers  who  had  been  to  court  at 
Xashville  and  had  lost  our  case,  were  called  upon 
to  give  an  account  of  the  affair.  One  after  an- 
tjther  gave  us  their  version  of  "how  the  judge 
came  to  make  such  an  unusual  ruling  against  the 
law  and  the  evidence."  It  was  all  very  nice  and 
pretty,  the  way  they  put  it,  and  went  down  the 
throats  of  most  of  the  people.  The  women  broke 
down  and  cried.  The  buyer,  pale  and  serious, 
was  equal  to  the  emergency.  He  claimed  that  it 
was  the  best  thing  that  could  have  happened, 
tliat  good  would  come  out  of  it  some  Ikmv.  Did 
not  see  how  just  >'et,  l)ut  was  satished  it  would 
come.  La-de-da.  This  went  down  the  throats 
of  the  people,  too.  It  was  all  right,  you  could  tell 
gudgeons  that  some  wonderful  thing  would  come 
out  of  the  sky  to  save  them,  and  thev  would  l>e- 
lieve  it. 

One  and  all  advised  hanging  together.  Xot  to 
scatter.  Xot  lo  abandon  the  ship  Ruskin,  as  a 
hopeless  wreck.  The  sentiment  was  all  right,  but 
there  was  no  way  in  sight  how  it  was  to  be  done. 
There  was  nothing  said  about  that.  The  people 
liad  to  live.  Three  hundred  mouths  had  to  l)c 
fed.  The  receiver  had  two  months  before  he 
sold  the  place,  and  might  put  it  ofif  indefinitel}- 
until  the  place  was  eaten  up.  How  to  hang  to- 
gether was  a  financial  problem  beyond  the  ca- 
pacity of  any  one  yet  seen  at  the  helm  of  affairs 
in  Ruskin.     If  these  self-sufficient  officials  coukl 


158  LAST     DAYS     OF     RUSKIN 

jioL  manage  the  finances  of  the  R.  C.  A.,  w  ith  its 
magnificent  income,  without  being  hard  up  all 
the  time,  how  were  they  to  hold  this  great  mass 
of  people  together,  without  income,  was  beyond 
the  comprehension  of  any  ordinary  mortal.  Some 
kind  of  a  thing-a-my  might  come  out  of  the 
air  somehow  and  accomplish  this  great  feat  of 
financial  prestidig;itation. 

Ruskin  was  dead,  wiped  out,  she  was  no  more. 
There  was  no  Ruskin.  Xo  officials.  No  any- 
thing but  the  receiver.  There  was  of  course  our 
property,  and  extensive  lands  under  cultivation 
that  were  to  be  sold  and  divided.  The  secret 
plan  of  the  old  crowd  to  get  the  land  debt  paid 
by  fees  of  new  members,  make  them  uncomfort- 
able so  that  thev  w'ould  leave,  then  start  a  brew- 
ery with  the  grand  cave  as  a  storage  vault,  be- 
come rich  and  let  the  Socialist  movement  go,  w-as 
knocked  in  the  head  by  the  premature  breaking 
out  of  the  I^^ree  Love  schism.  Co-operative  Rus- 
kin was  wiped  out  by  the  few  loyal  incompetents 
who  afflicted  us  by  remaining.  The  result  to 
Ruskin  was  the  same. 

The  receiver  has  been  in  possession  of  l^uskin 
for  six  days.  At  the  first  flush  of  his  introduction 
he  appointed  the  injunctionists  to  take  charge  of 
all  the  important  positions  in  the  ditiferent  de- 
partments. That  at  the  start  was  pretty  good 
evidence  that  they  w^ere  the  ones  to  be  favored, 
ft  went  pretty  tough  to  have  seven  of  these  peo- 
ple placed  as  lords  over  hundreds  of  people  by 
the  court,  against  whom  we  dare  not  even  offer 
an  objection.     For  six  days  our  store  has  been 


THR   LAST   GASP  I  5Q 

cIoschI.  opened  iKJW  aiitl  llu'ii  at  short  iiUervals. 
C)ur  business  office  is  locked,  mail  received  1)}' 
receiver  and  his  aids,  money  taken  in  charge  and 
we  have  nothing  to  say  about  it. 

On  our  own  property,  without  a  claim  for  debt, 
or  any  business  difficulty,  we  are  in  the  position  of 
interlopers  and  tramps  who  have  no  rig-hts  what- 
ever. The  dining;  hall  is  largely  deserted,  many 
Ijoarding-  themselves  at  home  at  their  own  ex- 
])en.se.  We  ajx  charged  for  board  now.  the  pay 
to  be  taken  out  of  our  pro  rata  when  Ruskin  is 
sold.  Sober  faces  are  universal,  even  on  the 
children.  The  vulgar  swagger  of  proprietorship 
•and  the  impudent  bravado  of  personal  rights  is 
gone.  Even  the  mouthy  Dago  has  shut  his  eter- 
nal noise  and  his  pre-eminent,  personal  promi- 
nence has  agreeably  sul)sided.  Something  has 
come  upon  the  scene  that  leveled  these  bravados 
and  left  the  atmosphere  less  offensive. 

That  something  is  the  State.  It  is  the  great 
regulator,  the  great  police.  Before  than  invincible 
power  all  social  nuisances  break  down.  I  am 
watching  its  effect  on  the  co-operators  closely. 
.Six  days  ago  society  was  intolerable  from  the 
domination  and  arrogance  of  the  politician,  bull- 
dozer, liar,  slanderer,  haters  of  education,  haters 
of  justice,  anti-progressionists,  and  their  train  of 
ignorant  fools  poisoned  through  and  through 
with  the  virus  of  the  old  element.  To-day  they 
have  subsided,  something  bigger  has  over- 
whelmed them,  our  ear^  are  no  longer  afflicted 
with  their  insane  ravings,  insults  and  disgusting 


l6o  LAST     DAYS     OF     RUSKlN 

lial)ils  and  manners  ;  tlie  presence  of  the  Stale  lia;> 
silenced  iheni. 

The  pubHcation  of  the  sale  of  Ruskin  fur  June 
22d  has  nearly  closed  off  all  our  income  from  out- 
side business.  It  is  now  postponed  to  July  26th. 
Feeding  the  people,  animals  and  general  expenses 
burns  the  candle  at  both  ends.  Provisions  are 
nmning  low.  A  cow  was  sold  to  buy  a  barrel  of 
sugar. 

The  members  are  taking  what  things  they  can 
use  from  the  receiver:  hats,  shoes,  cloth,  dry 
goods,  provisions,  or  anything  that  may  be  of 
utility  in  the  future.  There  is  a  general  impres- 
sion that  this  is  all  they  will  ever  get. 

I  met  a  bright,  intelligent  member  in  the  tailor 
shop.  He  was  stocking  up  with  cloth  for  a  suit. 
His  residence  in  the  colony  has  not  been  over  six 
months  and  this  cloth  is  all  he  will  ever  get  for 
his  $500.  He  looked  into  my  eyes  with  great 
earnestness  and  said,  'T  am  going  now  to  look 
for  the  fellow  who  has  the  money,  and  I  must 
work  for  him  until  the  end.  There  is  no  longer 
any  hope.  This  is  the  third  colony  I  have  been 
Ijitten  with :  Puget  Sound,  Kaweah,  and  Ruskin. 
I  have  come  to  the  conclusion  that  man  is  not  yet 
ready  for  co-operative  life.  If  I  am  permitted  to 
come  back  a  thousand  years  from  now  and  hu- 
manity is  in-  shape  by  that  time  I  may  be  induced 
to  try  it  again." 

It  is  the  seventh  day  of  the  receiver.  The  col- 
ony is  sinking  deeper  and  deeper  into  gloom. 
Most  of  the  men  and  women  are  unoccupied  and 
listlessly  walking  about.     These  people  are  not 


THE   LAST   GASP  1 6 1 

creative,  and  when  their  ordinary  work  stops, 
thev  stop.  That  is  the  end  of  them — thev  arc 
dead.  Rusk'n  has  ended  in  hollow  mockery.  A 
travesty  on.' socialism.  The  tale  of  an  idiot  that 
was  told,  y  t  money  contributed  for  education 
by  the  people  wac  tossed  into  that  common  pile 
of  "the  buyer's"  and  spent  by  the  gang  of  con- 
centrated ignorance  without  the  slightest  com- 
punction of  conscience. 

It  is  well  on  in  the  afternoon.  Brother  Jackson 
passes.  He  walks  with  his  head  down,  very  sad 
and  thoughtful.  He  has  lain  on  a  bench  m  the 
])ark  since  morning  without  eating,  or  speaking. 
He  looks  haggard.  I  respected  his  agony  and 
did  not  salute  him.  What  an  awful  review  must 
have  passed  through  his  soul.  It  is  impossible  to 
offer  consolation  to  one  in  his  mental  state.  It 
would  be  sacrilege  to  disturb  the  sanctity  of  the 
deathbed  of  his  hopes.  Sympathy  would  be  mock- 
ery. 

And  so  it  is  all  over  the  colony.  The  most 
trivial  character  is  sobered.  The  swagger  of  ig- 
norant impudence  has  vanished  under  the  sol- 
emnity of  the  receiver's  overpowering  grasp. 

While  every  one  is  serious  enough,  yet  no  cal- 
amity will  take  the  duplicity  and  cunning  out  of 
the  politician.  I  can  see  those  well  known  indi- 
viduals drifting  together,  talking  of  their  differ- 
ent schemes  and  plans  in  undertones.  They  all 
have  the  slink  of  low  cunning  in  their  makeup. 
These  fellows  have  taken  the  blind  people  over 
the  precipice.  They  are  trying  to  scheme  some 
way  out,  but  it  seems  too  much  for  them. 


1 62  LAST     DAYS     OF     RUSKIN 

I  see  just  now  a  group  of  four  of  these  poli- 
ticians squatted  in  a  fence  corner.  There  are  a 
number  of  soft-brained  fellows  standing  around 
hanging  on  their  every  look  and  gesture  as 
though  they  were  gods.  The  politicians  trim 
their  language  so  as  to  steer  the  dupes  the  way 
they  want  them  to  go.  These  politicians  are  plan- 
ning for  some  outlook  by  which  they  may  be 
able  to  work  the  public  for  more  members  and 
more  money  and  drag  these  simpletons  over  the 
precipice  again.  Will  they  go  with  them?  Why, 
yes,  most  assuredly,  as  often  as  they  w^ant  them. 
They  seem  to  like  to  be  ruined,  because  I  do  not 
see  them  consulting  or  hanging  around  the  wnse 
men  of  the  colony.  The  Jeremiahs  wdio  have 
warned  them  in  time  and  prophesied  exactly 
what  would  come  to  pass,  are  ignored.  The  de- 
graded wretches  who  have  been  representing  So- 
cialism before  the  world  under  the  banner  of  Rus- 
kin.  gravitate  naturally  to  their  own  kind,  the 
disreputable  politician.  His  slimy  hyprocrisy  is 
more  valued  than  the  golden  precepts  of  God's 
anointed. 

We  had  a  meeting  of  the  new  organization  to 
try  and  bring  our  women  into  membership.  Th€ 
afternoon  w^as  spent  in  discussion  with  the  matter 
deferred  to  another  meeting. 

Groups  of  men  and  women  stood  around  the 
cool  front  of  the  blufif  after  the  adjournment  dis- 
cussing the  matter  persistently,  but  good  natur- 
edly.  In  the  group  where  1  stood  the  conversa- 
tion turned  on  the  dif^culties  of  any  one  carrying 
out  a  line  of  work,  or  accomplishing  anything 


Till':   LAST   GASP  163 

without  being  objected  to,  or  having  fanh  hmntl 
by  some  one  wiio  knew  the  least  about  it.  The 
group  turned  over  the  various  attempts  to  install 
industries  in  Ruskin  and  found  them  about  all 
failures.     None  were  succeeding,  none  paying. 

"Our  shepherd"  had  been  a  western  sheep- 
raiser,  and  a  successful  one.  He  said  that  he 
could  take  the  thousand  acres  we  have  up  at  old 
Ruskin,  commence  with  100  sheep,  and  make  in 
a  short  time  a  paying  industry,  that  would  fur- 
nish us  much  that  we  need.  He  would  guarantee 
to  care  for  500  sheep  with  the  assistance  of  his 
two  daughters  at  lambing  time.  That  would  be 
all  the  aid  he  would  need. 

The  reason  why  he  does  not  propose  it  to  the 
association  is  because  he  knows  that  he  would 
not  be  allowed  to  do  it  without  being  interfered 
with.  That  some  one  or  a  committee  would  un- 
dertake to  direct  him  in  the  management  of  the 
business,  and  then  he  would  say,  here  is  your 
sheep  ranch,  run  it  your  way.  So  that  it  is  of 
no  use  trying  to  do  anything,  because  you  would 
not  be  allowed  to  carry  it  out. 

Another  member  of  the  group,  collected  and 
looked  after  the  fertilizer  for  the  farm.  He  was 
an  especially  valuable  man,  and  took  a  great  and 
constant  interest  in  his  work,  which  showed  to 
his  credit.  He  claimed  also  of  being  interfered 
with  in  many  ways. 

Well,  T  too  have  had  the  same  experience.  On 
my  introduction  to  the  colony  I  saw  at  once  thai 
nothing  could  be  done  with  the  people  we  had. 
If  anything  was  accomplished  in  the  way  of  man- 


164  LAST     DAYS     OF     RUSKIN 

ufacturing  some  legitimate  staple  articles,  as  soon 
as  the  factory  was  in  working  order,  it  would  be 
taken  out  of  my  hands  by  those  who  knew  noth- 
ing about  the  industry,  but  who  had  plenty  of  ig- 
norance and  conceit,  and  the  whole  enterprise 
would  be  ruined. 

A  number  of  our  people  are  packing  up  to  go 
away.  They  will  not  stay.  They  will  not  join  the 
new  Ruskin  Commonwealth.  They  say  it  is  use- 
less to  longer  stay  here.  We  have  been  deluded 
fools.  Have  sunk  our  money,  lost  our  time,  are 
sick  with  disappointment.  Ruined.  Have  to 
start  again  against  every  disadvantage,  are  dis- 
graced, have  lost  our  honor  by  sharing  the  crime 
of  permitting  the  "Coming  Nation"  to  publish 
those  lying  colony  notes,  and  deceiving  all  these 
people  who  have  come  in  here  to  be  wrecked 
with  us.  We  will  no  longer  prostitute  our  honor 
by  refusing  to  publicly  condemn  this  infamous 
practice.  We  thought  that  we  could  down  the 
old  corrupt  incompetents,  but  we  failed  to  do  so, 
because  of  the  indifference  and  apathy  of  the  peo- 
ple. The  deadness  of  the  public  mind  was  what 
the  Grand  Old  Roman  Gracchus  feared.  That 
deadness  cost  him  his  life.  History  repeats  itself ; 
we  have  it  here,  the  people  have  become  insensi- 
ble, mercenary.  Tiiey  look  for  the  $500  mem- 
bership fee  now  and  care  nothing  about  the  man. 

The  ethic  of  life  may  be  classed  under  the  term 
"ability."  What  is  here  meant  by  ability  is,  that 
fjualitication  I  may  possess  to  do  something  for 
you,  and  you  to  do  something  for  me.     If  we 


THE   LAST   GASP  1 65 

liave  no  ability  \\c  can  do  nothing-  for  each  other 
and  suffer  by  poverty,  misery  and  obhteration. 

The  idea  of  abihty  carries  with  it  the  sense  of 
(hity.  Duty  to  one  another.  It  sup^gests  the 
moral  that  no  one  should  permit  themselves  or 
permit  others  to  reach  maturity  without  acquiring 
ability  to  perform  the  object  of  our  lives  on  this 
earth.  The  more  ability  we  acquire  the  better  we 
can  perform  our  duties  to  one  another,  and  the 
greater  satisfaction  we  can  get  out  of  our  lives. 

The  idea  of  ability  embraces  the  whole  subject 
of  education  from  the  nursery  to  the  last  moment 
of  our  existence.  In  youth  every  opportunity 
should  be  given  to  build  up  the  ability  in  as 
many  ways  as  possible,  so  as  to  qualify  the  indi- 
vidual's usefulness  and  to  increase  civilization. 

This  necessity  of  possessing  abihty  brings  us 
into  the  educational  field.  We  cannot  escape  it. 
From  birth  to  death  our  lives  become  a  school  to 
increase  our  ability.  It  involves  proximity  to 
the  university.  The  university  must  be  general ; 
must  exist  everywhere.  No  branch  of  study  can 
be  omitted.  It  embraces  the  ethic  of  life  in  its 
curriculum.  The  ethic  is,  I  must  accjuirc  ability 
to  do  my  duty  to  my  neighbor.  I  must  c\o  unto 
him  as  I  would  have  him  do  unto  mc.  I  must 
fulfill  the  object  of  my  being  here  on  this  planet 
by  acquiring  ability  to  help  my  neighbor  get  the 
very  best  satisfaction  out  of  his  life  that  is  possi- 
l)le.  and  he  must  acquire  ability  so  as  to  do  the 
same  to  me. 

Although  this  presentation  of  the  subject  is 
without  limit,  it  is  unnecessary  to  enlarge  upon 


1 66  I..\ST     DAYS     OF     RUSKIN 

it.  Any  mind  capable  of  tliinking  at  all  can  see 
the  importance  and  vast  scope  of  the  idea  of 
placing-  the  ethic  of  life  on  our  duty  to  acquire 
abilit)-,  so  as  to  fulfill  the  object  of  our  existence. 
It  lays  the  whole  moral  code  open  to  the  compre- 
hension of  the  simplest  mind. 

The  idea  of  ability  as  being  the  fundamental 
base  by  which  our  relations  of  duty  may  be  ex- 
pressed to  one  another,  involves  all  that  can 
come  from  education,  as  well  as  all  that  can  come 
from  the  highest  code  of  ethics.  Whatever  may 
be  achieved  in  the  attainment  of  the  highest  wis- 
dom, is  brought  into  direct  relation  to  the  world 
more  swiftly  and  permanently  by  a  general  edu- 
cation, which  has  in  view  the  object  of  increasing 
usefulness  through  ability. 

From  the  contemplation  of  possible,  practical 
methods  by  which  a  sensible  regeneration  of  so- 
ciety can  be  achieved,  we  drop  thousands  of  feet 
into  crude  Ruskin,  where  there  was  no  ability 
except  among  a  helpless  few.  Where  every  efifort 
to  accomplish  anything  intelligent  was  studiously 
circumvented  by  the  dominating  ignorance^ 
whose  onlv  plan  v/as  to  wait  for  another  victim' 
with  $500  and  eat  him  up.  Ability  patiently 
wailed,  pleaded  for  opportunity  to  lay  its  golden 
treasures  before  the  brass  idol,  Ruskin,  with  feet 
of  clay.  Ability  was  spurned,  cast  aside,  treated 
with  slander  and  vituperation. 

Nothing  in  the  way  of  education  and  ability 
could  live  in  Ruskin.  There  were  noble  souls 
who  tried  it  with  a  Spartan  fortitude  beyond  all 
comprehension.     They   beat  out  their  beautiful 


THE   I,AST   GASP  T67 

lives  ill  trying  to  do  the  impossible.  Those  who 
eontrolled  the  destinies  of  Ruskin  were  incapable 
of  any  improvement.  Like  the  howling  mob  who 
killed  the  great  hearted  Jesus,  these  hends  in  hu- 
man shape  murdered  their  saviors.  In  this  cold- 
blooded, snaky  community  there  were  no  regrets. 
No  sorrow  at  lost  opportunities.  The  devils  part- 
ed with  the  feelings  of  hell  in  their  hearts.  Hat- 
ing themselves  and  every  one  with  whom  they 
were  associated.  Hating  Ruskin.  Hating  So- 
cialism. Hating  the  beautiful  world,  sun.  moon 
and  stars.  All  nature  was  detestable,  a  night  i.f 
blackness,  because  they  had  no  ability  to  live 
virtuous  lives. 


CHAPTER  XI. 

BABYLON  IS  FALLEN. 

And  enterprises  of  great  pith  and  moment, 
With  this  design  is  turned  awry, 
And  lose  the  name  of  action. 

— Shakespeare. 

Riiskin  is  breaking  up.  A  number  of  our 
members  have  left  to  work  at  Cumberland  fur- 
nace. They  are  to  become  the  wage  slaves  of  a 
contractor  to  the  furnace  company.  The  job  is 
gettmg  out  wood  for  charcoal  iron.  Many  of 
these  men  have  never  done  hard  manual  labor 
before.  One  has  been  twenty-five  years  at  school 
and  five  years  at  bookkeeping.''  Another  is  a 
tailor,  another  a  silk  weaver,  another  a  pattern- 
maker, and  so  on.  Not  one  of  them  a  profes- 
sional axe  man.  A  perfect  rush  to  get  work  un- 
der a  contractor.  The  great,  proud  co-operators 
of  Ruskin  rushing  for  a  miserable  chance  to 
slave. 

They  have  to  walk  eighteen  miles  to  get  to  the 
job.  There  are  no  houses  to  live  in.  A  tent  has 
been  secured.  Dugouts  and  other  bunking  places 
may  be  made  in  the  woods  among  the  ticks  and 
jiggers.  vSome  boys  have  gone  to  cook  for  them  ; 
a  baker  has  also  gone  ;  they  can  get  waste  brick 
bats  at  the  furnace  to  put  up  a  bat  and  mud  oven. 
The  comfortable  homes  are  left  behind  for  this 


BAP.YI.ON     TS    FALLEN  169 

rotigli  demoralizing-  life.  The  women  and  chil- 
dren are  here  alone.  Fortunately  Southern  neigh- 
bors are  generous  and  humane.  They  are  safe 
here. 

There  is  no  longer  a  Ruskin  dining  room,  with 
its  three  meals  a  day.  No  chance  to  grab  or 
waste  food.  No  waiting  for  a  new  victim  with 
$500.  No  time  to  malign  and  slander  noble  peo- 
ple. It  is  now  down  to  hard-pan  and  scratch  for 
a  living  on  the  barrenest  soil  of  competition. 
Quite  a  sudden  change. 

I  notice  that  the  leaders  did  not  go.  They  are 
not  on  the  warpath  for  slavery  in  the  woods. 
These  are  still  in  Ruskin  lying  back  comfortably. 
I5v  staying  they  can  receive  the  benefits  of  the 
monev  the  poor  wretches  earn,  which  is  to  be 
sent  in  to  the  treasury  of  the  new  Ruskin  Com- 
monwealth, to  be  spent  by  the  same  old  wreck- 
ers. 

No  more  free  plays ;  brass  band  concerts  in  the 
park ;  no  dances,  lectures,  despised  schools  and 
insulted  professors.  The  little  children  will  never 
more  see  the  devoted  lady  of  the  kindergarten 
from  whom  only  they  learned  manners,  skill  and 
the  sweet  spirit  of  love  and  kindness  to  one  an- 
other. From  this  on  all  will  be  brutality,  knock- 
down and  drag  out.  For  amusement,  drunken- 
ness and  sensualism.  The  Iseauty  of  life  tliat  of- 
fered itself  freely.  The  devoted,  holy  ones  \vho 
offered  their  lives  and  talents  on  the  altar  of  co- 
operation will  no  more  be  seen  in  the  wretched 
desert  of  their  future  lives.  Fierce  struggle  and 
fatigue  will  leave  no  moment  for  reflection  or  re- 


170  LAST     DAYS     OF     RUSKIN 

gret.  It  will  be  the  sea  of  despair  until  the  bitter 
end. 

A  tithe  of  this  struggle  would  have  brought 
peace  and  comfort  at  Ruskin.  The  easily  ob- 
tained food  and  comforts  enabled  the  ignorant 
and  vicious  Ruskinites  to  devote  their  time  to 
villifying  and  slander.  To  abusing  others  who 
were  trying  to  do  something  and  to  pulling  down 
the  temple  on  their  own  heads. 

The  receiver  had  generouslv  given  the  people 
who  have  formed  the  new  organization  (that  is  to 
be)  permission  to  carry  on  the  4th  of  July  cele- 
bration at  the  caves.  The  largest  crowd  ever 
known  here  was  present.  Over  $500  was  cleared. 
This  went  into  the  treasury  of  the  new  Ruskin 
Commonwealth.  "Our  buyer"  is  to  take  a  trip 
at  once  to  St.  Louis,  from  that  to  Chicago,  to 
look  up  new  sites.  This  will  get  rid  of  some  of 
the  $500.  He  is  trving  to  issue  bonds.  Bonds 
for  the  Socialists.  Oh  !  "Coming  Nation,"  where 
are  your  objections  to  bondholders  now?  This, 
the  rest  claim,  is  his  own  independent  move.  Not 
authorized.  That  makes  no  difference  to  him. 
Go  ahead  and  bond  the  Socialists,  anyhow.  We 
learned  this  from  a  party  who  was  nearly  victim- 
ized for  one  thousand  dollars. 

Well,  it's  sickening,  the  quiet  of  our  little  cot- 
tage with  the  gurgling  brook  at  the  door,  and 
the  sweet  throated  birds  and  cooing  doves  that 
v,'elcome  us  at  break  of  day.  will  last  a  few  days 
longer.  Then  the  shark,  the  speculator,  will  buy 
up  our  grand  plant  and  we  must  grieve  for  that 


P.ARYI.ON    TS   FATJ.EN  T7T 

saddest    of    all    sad     lliin.i;-s.  "what    nii-lu   luivc 
been." 

We  think  uf  how  the  industries  were  retarded 
and  destroyed.  How  the  printery  was  wreckefl 
by  the  sale'of  the  job  press.  Our  principal  indus- 
try killed.  How  we  had  to  refuse  work  because 
we  had  no  press.  How  it  hurt  us  with  our  friends 
and  customers.  No  reason  ever  given,  no  excuse 
for  looting  the  printery.  No  reckoning  ever  de- 
manded by  the  poor  simple  people,  who  took 
everything  as  being  all  right ;  even  ruin  was  all 
right.  And  you  could  tell  them  (as  "our  buyer" 
di-I)  that  the  receiver  was  a  great  blessing,  and 
they  would  believe  it. 

We  think  of  how  the  power  house  was  botched. 
How  the  boiler  furnace  was  erected,  that  devas- 
tated the  vv'ood  of  the  whole  country  and  cost 
thousands  of  dollars  to  keep  it  going.  Of  the 
waste,  extravagance  and  dead  expense  of  the 
steam-heating  and  machine  plant.  Enough  spent 
in  clumsy  guesswork,  ignorance  and  folly  to  have 
inaugurated  one  of  the  finest  outfits. 

When  we  think  of  the  botches  of  buildings,  the 
waste  of  labor  and  material  and  see  the  broken- 
backed,  cut  and  fit  results,  it  makes  us  sick. 
When  we  look  at  our  suspender  business  and  our 
cofTee  business  run  down  to  nothing,  about  dead, 
while  more  enterprising  people  have  taken  the 
trade  from  us.  Our  expensive  chicken  plant  and 
business  failed,  did  not  pay,  sold  out,  all  gone  but 
the  buildings,  it  makes  us  heave  a  sigh. 

When  we  think  of  the  spinning  machinery 
given  us,  lying  rusting,  no  place  to  put  it,  no  en- 


172  LAST     DAYS     OF     RUSKIN 

terprise  to  put  it  in  motion;  of  the  planing  mill 
outfit  costing  $1,500,  going  to  ruin  at  Old  Rus- 
kin,  for  over  four  years.  Of  the  steam  laundry 
failure.  The  loom  I  built  last  year  to  coax  the 
weaving  industry  to  start,  lying  rotting,  also 
dead.  Of  the  lime  kiln  idle  while  we  suffer  for 
lime.  Of  the  dead  enterprise  of  the  brick  vard. 
Of  the  expensive  improvements,  gardens  and  or- 
chards. Of  the  dead  college  buildings.  The 
foundation  of  one  wing  incomplete,  the  lumber 
l}'ing  warped  and  rotting  on  the  site.  What  vis- 
ions of  the  past,  what  visions  of  the  hoped  for 
future  rise  in  my  mind.  The  anticipated  bril- 
liant center  of  learning  that  was  to  have  shed  its 
light  by  this  time,  another  failure.  The  polished 
corner-stone  laid  with  such  solemnity  by  the 
^lasonic  order,  exposed,  and  strangers  playing 
with  the  deposits  and  records  at  pleasure.  When 
we  think  of  the  nearly  $900  the  good  people  con- 
tributed to  the  college  fund,  that  was  thrown  into 
the  cash  pile  as  it  came  in,  and  spent  at  random 
with- the  rest  of  the  pile,  ^\'llen  we  think  of  how 
"the  financier"  schemed  and  planned  to  prevent 
the  college  ever  maturing;  did  not  want  educa- 
tion ;  Ruskin  must  be  an  onion-raising  colony. 
How  "our  preacher"  joined  him  in  a  crusade 
against  education.  Of  the  impossibility  of  intro- 
ducing that  saving  grace  "par  excellence,"  the 
industrial  school,  with  its  arts  and  trades,  and 
endless  blessings,  that  is  making  many  communi- 
ties and  whole  cities  a  paradise  of  industry  and 
happiness.    It  makes  us  sick — sick — sick. 

When  we  think  of  the  attempt  to  make  a  road 


I'.AHYl.ON    IS   FALLEN  173 

along  the  solid  limestone  blnff,  out  of  debris  and 
solid  quarrying ;  it  is  left  unfinished ;  never  will 
be  now.  It  might  be  made  a  good  road  if  the 
United  States  government  would  put  the  money 
into  it.  Our  persistent  buyer  was  told  that  at 
first.  He  plunged  ahead,  being  one  of  the  old 
element  he  was  allowed  to  do  it.  There  it  is,  an- 
other monument.  A  petty  store  clerk,  handling 
an  engin.eering  job.  The  solid  men  who  did 
know  had  to  stand  back  and  look  at  the  ruin  go 
on.  Another  illustration  of  small  men  trying  to 
do  big  business. 

When  wc  think  of  the  extensive  gardens  from 
which  we  get  no  vegetables,  planted  in  nursery 
slock  largely,  flowers  and  late  vegetables ;  the 
foreman  doing  as  he  pleases  while  three  hundred 
people  are  suffering  now  in  the  middle  of  July, 
and  scarcely  a  green  in  sight,  while  the  natives 
and  negrofes  have  had  them  since  February  and 
March.  None  for  us  under  co-operation  ruled 
by  the  old  charter  stock.  The  poor  creatures  of 
people  growl,  but  the  thing  goes  on  just  the 
same,  and  whatever  these  incompetents  say  or  do, 
the  driveling  majority  endorses. 

It  is  better  to  stop  the  endless  list  here,  and 
omit  the  wrecked  lives  of  youth  that  have  missed 
this  golden  opportunit}'  for  education.  It  is  bet- 
ter to  draw  the  veil  over  the  infamy  of  the  poli- 
ticians who  worked  with  the  cunning  of  serpents 
against  all  advancement,  all  improvement,  and 
who  at  last  l:)rought  Ruskin  to  wreck  :\u(]  niin  in 
five  years  and  four  months. 

We  shall  soon  have  a  deserted  villag"e.    A  scene 


174  LAST     DAYS     OF     RUSKIN 

of  desolation.  Serpents  and  wild  animals  will 
inhabit  the  homes  of  the  foolish  Ruskin  people. 
"Our  shepherd's"  house  was  the  first  one  built  on 
Lhe  hill.  'It  is  occupied  by  his  family.  He  is 
working  away  somewhere.  He  was  one  of  the 
principals  in  alienating  the  people.  Of  produc- 
ing that  estrangement.  That  stand-off.  That 
separation  which  ended  in  suspicion,  gossip  and 
lying  about  one  another.  He  believed  in  a  Caesar. 
He  had  no  use  for  the  people.  He  possesed  great 
depth  of  cunning  and  held  office  from  first  to  last 
under  all  administrations  and  all  parties.  He 
was  badly  raked  once  or  twice  on  his  record, 
which  was  tainted  with  defense  of  anarchists  and 
free-lovers.  It  hit  him  hard.  So  he  just  kept 
quiet  until  it  blew  over,  when  he  was  as  solid  as 
ever  with  the  poor,  simple  people.  A  sample  of 
his  cunning  is  appended  in  the  report  on  temper- 
ance.    Observe  the  dodger: 

"In  regard  to  members  of  the  association 
found  intoxicated,  your  committee  is  a  luiit  in 
wishing  to  suppress  the  evil  *  *  *  but  '■'  *  ''' 
knowing  that  all  past  legislation  along  this  line 
has  been  a  failure,  we  do  not  care  to  recommend 
the  usual  methods,  and  not  being  able  to  suggest 
new  or  better  ones  *  *  *  we  recommend  that 
a  meeting  be  called  at  an  early  date  to  consider 
this  important  question,  and  see  if  the  combined 
wisdom  of  the  new  civilization  cannot  find  a  new 
and  better  way  to  attack  this  great  evil  than  any 
yet  advanced.     Respectfully, 

"Committee." 


BABYLON    IS   FALLEN  175 

When  \vc  think  of  the  children's  Httlc  flower 
and  vegetable  garden.  It  stands  empty.  Not  a 
plant,  not  a  flower  put  in  it  by  the  little  tots  this 
year.  The  spring  was  wet  and  late,  but  it  could 
have  been  dug  up  with  a  little  management.  The 
new  school  superintendent  was  a  very  impracti- 
cal man,  no  ideas  of  executing  work,  or  of  plan- 
ning it.  The  kindergarten  ladies  could  not  do  it 
themselves  and  repeated  applications  to  the  exec- 
utive officers  failed  of  practical  results.  Poor 
children,  they  are  running  wild,  like  rabbits.  We 
are  now  by  the  court  forbidden  to  run  the  schools, 
and  their  little  garden  that  was  last  year  a  place 
of  interest  and  beauty,  is  a  desert  of  weeds.  Every 
thing  going — going — gone  to  the  dogs.  Again 
— small  men  trying  to  run  a  big  business. 

Two  years  ago  we  had  the  theater  and  the  ball- 
room in  fine  shape.  A  good  brass  band  and  an 
orchestra.  No  visitor  who  ever  came  into  Rus- 
kin  danced  as  well  as  our  young  people.  The 
physical  development  classes  helped  them  won- 
derfully. Things  were  working  up  in  good  shape 
towards  culture  and  improvement,  and  hope  for 
our  ideal  was  burning  brightly.  A  little  while 
before  the  smash-up  the  ignorant  majority  had 
culminated  the  decadence  that  set  in  after  the 
Free  Love  fight.  The  dance  had  become  a  mob 
of  howling  dervishes.  The  orchestra  was  broken 
up.  A  country  fiddler  furnished  the  music.  A 
tough  was  in  command.  Some  of  the  native 
toughs  were  worked  in.  Floor  battering  and 
yelling  drowned  the  fiddler.  The  girls  were 
swung  oflf  their  feet  and  men  fell  on  the  floor  in 


176  LAST     DAYS     OF     RUSKIN 

the  wild  melee.  Terrible  would  be  a  mild  term 
to  describe  the  disorder.  The  ignorant  majority 
could  not  be  better  than  its  parts.  When  left  to 
itself  it  only  increases  its  disorder  and  vulgarity. 
The  large  portrait  of  Shakespeare  looked  down 
from  the  proscenium  above  the  stage  on  this 
maniacal  co-operative  joint  and  John  Ruskin 
from  the  other  end  of  the  hail.  A  dream  of  sub- 
tropical landscape,  with  banks  of  flowers  that 
glowed  with  light.  Ideal  palaces  and  cultured 
people  painted  on  the  large  drop  curtain  that  shut 
off  the  stage,  richly  decorated  bronze  columns 
that  doubled  up  the  proscenium  supporting  a 
lovely  Corinthian  architrave  and  embracing  art 
trophied  panels  with  damasked  grounds,  looked 
sadly  incongruous  with  the  disgusting  scene  on 
the  waxed  floor  of  the  great  hall. 

These  elegant  attractions,  produced  by  the 
hands  of  one  man  animated  by  a  pure  Socialist 
spirit,  had  great  influence  on  visitors  to  the  col- 
ony who  sought  the  man's  acquaintance  and,  find- 
ing his  manners  and  conversation  attractive,  paid 
him  unusual  attention.  In  time  this  created  a 
feeling  of  jealousy  among  those  who  lived  by 
pretence  and  politics.  These  adopted  the  natural 
plan  of  secretly  undermining  the  man  who  had 
so  generously  used  his  accomplishments  to  sur- 
round them  with  the  only  embellishments  of  re- 
finement they  had  ever  seen  or  possessed.  Their 
devilish  policy  was  carried  out  with  the  ignorant 
majority  to  the  complete  destruction  of  them- 
selves and  a  return  to  the  horrors  of  their  desolate 


BUST    OF    JOHN    RUSKIN. 


BABYLON    IS   FALLEN  1 7/ 

original  state,  where  no  ray  of  civilized  lite  will 
ever  again  penetrate  the  desert  of  their  lives. 

"Our  buyer"  has  returned  from  the  crowd  of 
wrecked  Ruskinites  who  are  working  at  Cumber- 
land furnace.  Things  were  getting  hot  for  him 
around  here,  so  he  struck  out  for  the  furnace. 
Did  not  stay  long.  A  large  group  of  members 
who  are  going  to  Georgia  are  gathered  in  the 
park.  "Our  bi.yer"  joins  them.  Soon  a  commo- 
tion begins.  He  is  being  accused  by  the  peo- 
])le.  They  are  mad.  Seriously  mad.  They  call 
him  "a  thief."  He  backs  out  from  the  crowd, 
saying,  "If  I  am  a  thief,  I  had  better  leave  Rus- 
kin."  He  did  next  morning.  Abandoned  the 
hope  of  the  ages.    "Sic  transit  gloria  mundi." 

When  Mark  Twain  wrote  "Innocents  Abroad" 
the  New  World  laughed  at  the  civil  and  religious 
absurdities  of  Europe.  Many  of  us  who  knew 
them  more  intimatelv  than  Mark  laughed  be- 
cause he  did  not  tell  them  fully.  Mark  feared 
being  considered  a  Baron  Munchausen.  The 
psyschological  state  of  the  public  mind  requires 
the  truth  to  be  fixed  into  what  Greelev  used  to 
call  "a  fl^p  daddle  for  fools."  Many  prefer  a  po- 
litical, or  religious  lie.  If  T  was  to  tell  the  pub- 
lic that  our  injunctionist  editor  and  an  iron 
moulder  who  wished  to  discredit  the  fine  por- 
trait of  John  Ruskin  which  hung  in  our  hall  and 
was  painted  by  their  enemy,  by  circulating  a  re- 
port among  the  ignorant  mob  that  it  had  five  fin- 
gers and  a  thmnb  on  one  hand  ;  that  the  mob  be- 
lieved it  and  never  looked  at  the  portrait  that 
hung  over  their  heads  to  find  out  the  truth,  t!ie 


178  LAST     DAYS     OF     RUSKIN 

public  would  nut  beliexc  it.  il  would  not  go 
down.  Shut  thcni  up  in  Ruskin  for  a  few  years 
and  they  won't  need  telling.  "Experience  is  the 
best  teacher."  Those  who  still  think  that  the  hu- 
manity of  the  post  tertiary  epoch  can  be  harmon- 
ized with  the  humanity  of  the  reptilian,  era  would 
resent  such  a  statement  as  a  rude  shock  to  their 
idilliums. 

The  women  have  turned  in  to  bring  har- 
monious conditions  in  the  colony  by  mental  sci- 
ence meetings,  which  they  keep  up  persistently 
every  evening. 

"When  the   devil  was   sick,   the  devil   a   monk 

would  be, 
When  the  devil    got    well,    the    devil    a    monk 

was  he." 

How  like  a  church  service  it  is  in  the  school- 
house.  Even  the  mockers  at  religion  treat  it  re- 
spectfully. They  open  with  singing,  then  a  long 
silent  sit,  concentrating  the  mind  on  our  miseries 
more  than  brotherly  love.  So  one  of  the  ladies 
informed  me.  It  is  like  a  quaker  meeting.  They 
close  with  singing  the  ''golden  rule,"  to  the  tune 
of  "Auld  Lang  Syne."  Very  nice  indeed.  Quite 
different  to  sitting  around  the  stoops  of  the  vari- 
ous headquarters  for  scandal  and  each  one  trying 
to  run  everybody's  business  and  their  own  too. 
The  effect  is  good.  It  is  a  pity  we  did  not  have  a 
receiver  all  along  for  the  last  five  years.  We 
would  have  been  monks  and  nuns  by  this  time. 

I  wonder  if  we  would  be  good  if  fear  was  abol- 


BABYLON    IS    FALLEN  1/9 

ished.  If  out  of  punislmicnl  we  must  get  our  evo- 
lution, it  would  be  well  to  organize  a  department 
of  government  eomposed  of  receivers.  We  would 
then  be  scared  into  singing  the  '"golden  rule''  all 
the  time.  Queer  they  did  not  think  of  mental 
science  before  Ruskin  burst  up.  Before  the  An- 
archy and  Free  Love  schism.  Before  the  print- 
erv  was  looted.  Before  the  begging  letters  and 
the  blaze  in  the  "Coming  Nation"  of  how  we 
were  going  to  do  up  the  injunctionists  at  the  sale. 
The  judge  would  not  then  have  had  the  evidence 
of  our  periidy,  and  have  put  on  the  receiver. 

It  would  have  been  a  good  plan  to  practice 
mental  science  on  the  Executive  Board  before 
they  spent  our  money.  To  have  given  the  Presi- 
dent a  dose  to  remind  him  to  pay  the  v$i,500  we 
lost  on  the  planing  mill  law  suit  and  not  have  had 
the  Sheriff  on  us.  To  have  worked  it  on  them  so 
that  the  mortgage  on  the  Smith  farm  would  not 
have  to  be  extended.  We  might  have  worked  it 
on  building  the  college  and  the  industrial  school 
for  the  unfortunate  children. 

Stables  are  generally  locked  after  the  horse  is 
stolen.  Old  Janus  had  two  faces — one  looked 
behind  on  what  had  been  done — on  the  experi- 
ence of  the  past ;  the  other  looked  ahead  for 
breakers.  His  mental  science  was  of  a  good  kind, 
it  kept  receivers  ofif  him. 

The  colony  is  awfully  quiet.  There  is  no  one 
here  to  make  a  noise  except  the  women  and  chil- 
dren. No  one  is  annoyed  with  work.  There  is 
the  peace  of  deadness.  Nothing  to  disturb  us. 
No  one  to  upset  things.    No  one  to  burst  our  pile 


I  So  LAST     DAYS     OF     RUSKIN 

except  the  receiver.  We  dare  not  fuss  with  him. 
]\Iental  science  will  get  the  credit  of  the  quiet 
condition.    Let  it  have  it.    That's  all  right. 

The  women  have  quieted  down  with  mental 
science  and  singing  the  "golden  rule"'  for  har- 
mony. This  song  they  learned  from  the  heavenly 
little  kindergarten  and  the  refined  lady  who  had 
their  little  tots  like  little  angels  when  within  its 
sacred  influence.  The  children  are  now  running 
the  gravel  beds  and  woods  by  day  and  spanking 
around  wild  at  nights,  learning  no  good.  They 
don't  need  mental  science.  It  will  be  time  enough 
when  they  grow  up  to  be  sturdy,  dangerous 
Anarchists  and  Free  Love  fighters.  Regular  pen- 
itentiary birds.  Then  the  mothers  can  meet 
nights  and  practice  mental  science  to  reform 
them. 

We  have  to  go  by  the  conditions.  These  are 
the  conditions.  We  make  them.  After  we  have 
made  them,  in  our  grief  we  shed  tears  and  huddle 
together  to  cure  the  trouble  by  mental  science. 
The  most  prominent  mothers  at  the  mental  sci- 
ence job  just  now  have  the  worst  children.  Well, 
better  that  than  nothing,  I  suppose. 

The  receiver  goes  on  all  the  same.  It  doesn't 
stop  him  a  bit,  and  the  injunctionists  are  helping 
him  to  get  our  stuff  together  to  sell  it  out  next 
week.  I  hope  the  women  will  be  on  hand  at  the 
sale  to  practice  mental  science  on  the  bidders  and 
get  us  a  good  price,  so  that  we  will  get  some- 
thing out  of  it  for  next  winter's  food,  clothing 
and  fuel,  for  they  won't  take  mental  science 
around  here  in  the  stores  for  groceries. 


BABYLON    IS   FALLEN  l8l 

God  bless  the  women  !  They  are  doing  the 
best  they  know.  Do  not  for  a  moment  imagine 
that  our  women  are  noi  up  to  the  standard  of' 
other  women  of  their  type.  They,  on  the  average, 
outclass  the  men.  There  arc  people  here  sharing 
this  disgrace,  whose  personal  virtues  command 
the  highest  respect  and  admiration.  Unfortu- 
nately, they  are  in  a  small  minority. 

One  of  the  most  important  lessons,  after  show- 
ing the  incapacity  of  the  uneducated  proletariat 
to  organize  or  sustain  a  condition  of  society  giv- 
ing any  security  or  advancement,  is :  Do  the  mis- 
fortunes that  happen  to  this  class  of  people  result 
in  any  beneficial  lesson  by  which  they  may  profit  ? 
This  point  has  been  watched  closely  in  the  socio- 
logical study  of  Ruskin,  and  the  conclusion  is 
positively,  no !  They  do  not.  There  is  not  suffi- 
cient intelligence  to  realize  the  seriousness  of  the 
disaster.  The  pinch  is  felt,  like  a  starved  animal ; 
but-  the  least  variation  in  it  in  the  way  of  relief, 
brings  forward  the  same  traits  of  impudence, 
tyranny  and  cruelty  as  before,  as  shown  in  the 
new  organization  that  went  to  Georgia.  Two 
years  wiped  them  out. 

Educated  minds  make  the  mistake  of  attribut- 
ing virtues  to  the  uneducated  which  they  do  not 
possess  ;  which  they  cannot  possess ;  virtues  de- 
veloped only  by  education. 

Tolstoi  says  that  Christ's  teachings  have  been 
turned  away  for  political  ])urposes,  so  as  to  keep 
the  toiling  masses  trained  in  superstitious  obedi- 
ence, the  better  to  exploit  them.  He  is  ratlier 
late  in  the  day  with  this  annotmcement.     Social- 


1 82  LAST     DAYS     OF     RUSKIN 

ists  and  pure  religionists  have  been  preaching 
that  for  a  long  time.  The  "new  conscience"  is 
rile  best  evidence  that  an  extensive  change  has 
come  in  social  ideas.  Society  is  turning.  Tolstoi 
thinks  that  no  economic  arrangements  such  as  we 
had  in  Ruskin  will  turn  it.  That  we  must  go 
back  to  the  original  Christ  and  mdividually  im- 
prove each  heart  and  conscience. 

Who  is  to  blame  for  the  stupidity  of  the 
masses?  If  th^y  were  not  stupid  no  one  could 
exploit  them,  or  would  they  wreck  a  first-class 
chance  such  as  they  had  in  Ruskin,  or  fight  like 
fiends  in  the  new  organization  that  went  to  Duke, 
Ga.,  until  the  last  vestige  was  destroyed  and  then 
go  to  work  making  berry  crates  for  an  employer 
of  convict  labor  alongside  of  convicts — a  fate 
worse.'than  the  Cumberland  furnace  slavery,  after 
the  srtiashup  in  Tennessee.  Poor  Tolstoi  is  ex- 
communicated. As  Burns  says  of  Tarn  O'Shan- 
ter : 

"In  hell  they'll  roast  thee  like  a  herring."' 

No  wonder  that  the  church  is  dead.  The  wreck 
of  individual  lives  and  whole  families  that  fol- 
lowed the  tragedy  of  Ruskin  cannot  be  given 
here.  A  Zola  could  not  picture  its  horrors.  Dis- 
persement,  moral  debasement,  death  and  insanity 
resulted.  Many  of  the  survivors  maintain  a  pre- 
carious existence  worse  than  death.  Disease  in 
the  swamps  of  South  Georgia  swept  them  awav. 
or  to  the  grave,  like  flies.  Homes  exist  no  more. 
The  cherished  ideal  of  restful  conditions  is  a 
fading  dream  and  the  idealists  are  Boating  like 


BARVr.ON    IS    FALLEN  T83 

bubbles  on  ihe  ocean  of  life,  soon  "to  rise  and 
break  and  to  that  sea  return." 

As  1  was  leaving  the  sad  scenes  of  Ruskin's 
downfall,  where  the  ignorant,  self-destroyed  vic- 
tims were  standing  around  in  groups,  cursing 
their  unhappy  fate  and  accusing  one  another,  a 
group  of  little  kindergarten  children  were  play- 
ing on  the  platform  of  the  abandoned  photograph 
gallery.  With  a  different  spirit  than  their  elders, 
they  ran  to  bid  me  good  bye,  with  dozens  of  arms 
about  my  neck  they  kissed  me  and  left  their 
sacred  tears  upon  my  face. 

—FINIS— 


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